Deranged Philosophical Outpourings

Wednesday, March 20, 2002

Well, this is hybrid philosophy/law, but bear with me.

THE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY CREATOR'S BILL OF RIGHTS

1. You made it, it's yours until you sell it.

This rule is violated in the most careless fashion by almost any corporation (which attempt to protect their interests and nothing but after they reach a certain size, merely because trying to protect such huge interests takes up all their think.) You sign a contract (casually), and suddenly your brain is an indentured servant. You write something at home, it's the company's. You write something completely unrelated, in Paraguay, on linoleum with a Magic Marker, it's still the company's. This is possibly the most obscene thing I have ever seen! Imagine you're a small company (not a person, but a group of people) working on something as a contract job for another company. You would NEVER in a million years sign a legal agreement that stated you just gave up all the rights to anything the whole company was working on while you worked for these people! It would be insane!

Why would one person do it?

That's the good part -- if it's yours, it's yours. Here's the bad news.

2. If you create it from something else, the fact you created something from it has to be yours too.

This means that -- were I so inclined -- I should be able to take a full print of the Mona Lisa, scan it and print it as though it is toilet paper, and sell it as a piece of art. (This is something I'd never bother doing, mainly because you can't print toilet paper.) And you know what? That's really what creation is. There's a finite amount of things to be created. Unless we get a much shorter memory, soon, the Disney effect (where the public domain keeps getting held off so Mickey Mouse doesn't end up public domain) is going to destroy art as we know it. Nobody will be able to use anything else, and "creation", while a nice way of putting it, boils down to new takes on old things. Like it or not, we have limited sensory capability, there are X number of colors the human eye can distinguish, etc. Art has a limit, and unless you want art to die a slow, choked, bland death, please, let copyright expire! For fuck's sake, when you DIE, you're DEAD. To hell with your estate. Fifty years is way too long, and the Mickey effect must be stifled somehow.

3. If you wrote it, and you post it publicly, your government has a right to screw you with it, unless they said otherwise.

This is pretty simple. The US Constitution ensures a right to privacy and free speech. You speak here, it's supposed to be protected, whether it's unpopular political beliefs or slashfic or discussions about anuses. This comes under the "If You Don't Like It, And It's Not Yours, Shut The Hell Up And Go Away" rule which is really an easy one to come to.

4. If you wrote it, and it was never made public in any way, it is your private document, and the government has no right to screw you with it, unless they said otherwise.

(I do want to point out that some countries make it explicit. "Oh, yes, we forgot to mention we'll be monitoring everything you ever type in. Is that okay? If it isn't, we can kill you and dump your body in a shallow grave somewhere." Those countries have their own goddamn problems, and frankly, I'm not concerned about countries. I'm concerned about humanity. People concerned with nothing but shallow, we-should-be-first-just-because patriotism can feel free to express it, but they should not be free to inflict it. I'm a member of the human race first, and an American second, and then only because I like the place. I'm a human because I have to be.)

This is pretty simple. You should have privacy. It's a right that I firmly believe should be afforded every single human being, the right to freedom of thought and freedom of personal, quiet, in-my-own-damn-house expression. Therefore -- even if I thought that someone was a criminal -- they shouldn't be hacked by the government. The government has a very simple role in this whole mess, and it keeps screwing it up: Be The Good Guy. (Instead of Be The Corporate Toady or Be The Self-Serving Pay Increaser.) That's all government has to do, be the good guy, and it keeps screwing it up. Being the good guy isn't even that hard! Leave most people alone, stop people when they do something bad. Accept that you're not going to win them all, and try to lose gracefully -- but try never to lose, either. (I would add, 'Kill all the lawyers,' but I realize I'm an extremist on that one to some.)

Honestly, I think if those four tenets could somehow be integrated into the modern legal system, things would shake out in fifty years.

But, hey, if you disagree, let me know.
posted by Gregory 10:36 AM