[109123] in Cypherpunks
RE: NGOs and the Indulgence Racket (was re: Compulsory licenses andaccess to essential medicines NGO-sponsored meeting in Geneva, March 26,1999)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Blanc)
Thu Mar 11 03:11:24 1999
From: "Blanc" <blancw@cnw.com>
To: <cypherpunks@cyberpass.net>
Cc: "'Digital Bearer Settlement List'" <dbs@philodox.com>, <dcsb@ai.mit.edu>,
<CYBERIA-L@LISTSERV.AOL.COM>
Date: Wed, 10 Mar 1999 23:58:35 -0800
In-Reply-To: <000d01be6b7f$36fc0fe0$0100a8c0@BANANAS>
Reply-To: "Blanc" <blancw@cnw.com>
From Phillip Hallam-Baker:
: Intellectual property is a privillege granted towards a social end and
: not an absolute right unconstrained by any responsibility.
..............................................
Granted by whom? Who has the right to "grant" a right?
(those how abrogate it to themselves?)
The colonists' understanding of rights were not precise nor consistent (and they
still are not), but the concept of 'property' was derived by way of
philosophical examinations, not from a public grant from a lenient overlord.
Locke and his predecessors inspired many towards the grasp of this idea, that a
person can own themselves, that they can claim as their own the fruits of their
own work. This idea was a break away from the previous concept of the place of
individuals within a political society.
If you don't think that property - intellectual or otherwise - is worth
respecting, it appears you are denying any value to the source of its creation,
to the one(s) who introduced into the world something which did not exist
before. And if they ignore you it will be for a very good reason.
..
Blanc
