[lbo-talk] Dumb QOTD: What kind of labor produces intellectual property?

[Tayssir John Gabbour]

Yes, and most people don't realize how important piracy is to their
lives. When the US was developing, it did the sensible thing and
pirated whatever it could get its hands on. Refused to subject itself
to copyright, until sufficiently powerful content interests developed.
(http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/14/business/new-economy-intellectual-property-debate-takes-page-19th-century-america.html)

The tech helping power much of people's lives — Unix — benefitted from
piracy too. There was a book of its sourcecode which spread through
samizdat. And of course it's now popular because of a conspicuous lack
of copyright. (Linux's license comes from an aggressively
anti-copyright movement.)
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lions'_Commentary_on_UNIX_6th_Edition,_with_Source_Code)

Were the most fundamental tech advances (like computing) developed
through copyright? Or through massive government funding and support?

All the best,

 Tj

On Sat, Sep 3, 2011 at 2:20 AM, michael perelman
<michael.perelman3 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Exactly.  In my book Steal this Idea, I emphasize how intellectual
> property hinders both science & technical change.  Much of he cost
> goes to litigation rather than rewarding creativity.
>
> On Fri, Sep 2, 2011 at 5:12 PM,  <123hop at comcast.net> wrote:
>>
>> Really? I oppose both. For the same reason that Jonas Salk gave away the polio vaccine.