Paul Graham, in his article “Defining Property“:
“Ultimately it comes down to common sense. When you’re abusing the legal system by trying to use mass lawsuits against randomly chosen people as a form of exemplary punishment, or lobbying for laws that would break the Internet if they passed, that’s ipso facto evidence you’re using a definition of property that doesn’t work.”
True. Property has a different context in the unreal estate of the Web.
As of this writing, Yahoo! has committed to suing Facebook over copyright infringement. Mark Cuban, an American business magnate and investor, has an interesting take on the development.
From my vantage point, there is no single greater enemy to innovation and creativity1 than the woefully antiquated laws surrounding copyright and intellectual property.
- Or you can replace ‘innovation and creativity’ with ‘species’. Before you laugh, consider: we’re tool makers who are not making greater strides, making better tools, for fear of legal reprisal. So much for opposable thumbs when they choose to pen laws that handcuff our future. Okay, now laugh.