Wal-Mart Is Right

[AlanM]

Let's take real life:

Stephen King writes a book. A publisher prints the book and then sells it for say $20.
They give Mr King some money.

Should you be allowed to copy that book using a photocopier and then charge $10?

You can do this now with books that are beyond Copyright protection. So what inherent right is there to a given length of time, granted by the Gov to a monopoly on selling the work?

[Dreepa]

I am not talking the government.
Aren't you stealing from Mr King and his publisher?

[AlanM]

I am not talking the government.
Aren't you stealing from Mr King and his publisher?

No. No more than if I make a table, sell it, and someone else copies the table and sells it themselves.

[Dreepa]

So you think it would be ok if some set up shortydawkins.net and copied the stories? Or made new ones up?

[AlanM]

So you think it would be ok if some set up shortydawkins.net and copied the stories? Or made new ones up?

Someone could. I would then advertise my site as the "Original Shorty Dawkins"

[AlanM]

Makle no mistake, what we are dealing with is the validity of Gov granted monopolies, which are the basis of copyrights. Nothing more.

[president]

No, when I sell you one of my books or recordings, I will only do it if you agree not to copy and sell it. I don't need the government. You break the contract, I break your face. 

[Dreepa]

Right I am not talking the govt either.

Stealing is stealing.

[AlanM]

Right I am not talking the govt either.

Stealing is stealing.

When you pass on a joke you have heard, do you call it stealing? Thoughts are thoughts. If we didn't use other folks thoughts we could not gain knowledge or communicate.

[JonM]

If you read a book to someone you are not stealing.  If you re-print it and sell it, you are.  There are those who give away their ideas, and those who wish to make some sort of living from them.  Should a writer not be able to make a living off his or her writing?

[Zork]

What about books?

If someone writes a book can someone else copy the book and then resell it?

Well, yes.  If you make something and then sell it to me, then I own it and can do whatever I want with it, because now I own it.  You own what you didn't sell to me, so you can continue to sell your book to other people, but now I own your book too, so I can sell it also.

But what if when I sold it to you there was an agreement that you would not copy it and sell it without my permission?

Well, if there is a contract involved where the basis of the sale is an agreement to not copy, then the whole situation falls under the perview of civil contracts, nothing to do with intellectual property "rights"

How is the idea for a book different than an idea for a table that the creator of a book has inherently more rights than the creator of the table?  Why do we agree that it's okay to copy a table and sell the table copies, but it's not okay to copy a book and sell the book copies?

[JonM]

A table represents the material to use it and the labor to create it.  A book is an intellectual property.

Now of course, if you take inferior materials and copy a famous table design and sell it as if it were that table, you've got fraud as well.

[Thespis]

So I should spend years and millions of dollars making a drug and then have someone copy the drug and then I don't get to recoup my investment?  What incentive do I have to make more drugs?

I know this conversation has moved from drug patents to copyrights, but I just wanted to mention that the solution to a situation like this is name recognition. If your drug company has a good reputation, people will support you and buy your products, even if they can find the exact same product cheaper. A huge example of this is Tylenol. You can buy the exact same medicine cheaper, but people still buy the Tylenol brand simply because they trust the name. I could start my own company today and sell the exact same medicine as Tylenol, but I won't run Tylenol out of business, in fact, it'll probably be exceedingly hard to get my foot in the door.

[Russell Kanning]

Let's take real life:

Why should one person throw another in jail for copying his book?

[Russell Kanning]

Building a table is not intellectual?