Galombos and a World where Ideas can be Protected

[Tim May <tcmay@got.net>]

At 6:12 PM -0800 2/6/98, bill.stewart@pobox.com wrote:
>At 10:34 AM 2/5/98 -0600, Jim Choate wrote:
>>If there were no copyright nobody would have any reason to market
>>software or much else for that matter. I would predict that much of
>>the technology and infrastructure we have now wouldn't exist.
>>It would also stiffle [sic] creativity and new methodologies because
>>there would be no profit in it to recoup development costs.
>
>If there were no copyright, markets for information and entertainment
>would definitely have evolved differently than they have in the US
>and Europe, and would use much different mechanisms for getting money
>to the producers of information, such as standard sale contracts.*
....

It's always hard to say how reality would look in a different universe, one
with, say, no copyright laws.

However, we have some indications, because there are some things which are
very much like "intellectual property" which, in fact, have no protection
in the courts.

Namely, _ideas_.

For better or for worse, ideas are not protected against copying, use, etc.

(Before anyone jumps in and cites patents, by "ideas" I mean scientific
discoveries, philosophical expressions, aphorisms, and so on, not
_expressions_ of ideas in the form of working gadgets. And not "software
patents" (with which I disagree, as do many of us). And not _specific_
instances of ideas in the form of essays or stories or whatever, which of
course _can_ be copyrighted.)

In our society, and in all societies with which I'm familiar, having a good
idea is not protectable. (Again, not counting inventions and such.)

And yet society works fine. Those who keep coming up with ideas find ways
to keep coming up with ideas, and often to prosper, as writers,
consultants, etc., often because of their ability to generate ideas.

(There is a radical, and bizarre, subsect of libertarians called
"Galambosians," who argue that even ideas are property. In their view, I
could charge people 10 cents or a dollar or such for their usage of "crypto
anarchy" ideas, or "Big Brother Inside" ideas, or for being influenced by
my ideas in other ways. Hard to enforce, I'd say. Which is probably why the
ideas of Galombos are not copied by many others. In his system, he'd be a
pauper.)

Think about an alternate world where ideas are protectable before saying a
world without copyrights would collapse inevitably.

--Tim May

Just Say No to "Big Brother Inside"
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
ComSec 3DES:   408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^3,021,377   | black markets, collapse of governments.