[Fsfe-france] Propriete Intellectuelle & societe

[Laurent Guerby]

Ca arrive pas souvent :) mais voici un message que je trouve 
exceptionnellement clair
sur slashdot sur le sujet, toujours dans la veine liberale.

<http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/02/02/179230>

<<
Re:It's all about the money  (Score:5, Insightful)
by Frater 219 (1455) Neutral on Sunday February 02, @18:45 (#5210641)
( Last Journal: Thursday November 14, @22:20 )

> It's pro-capitalist though, which is why it is allowed to exist.

And thus we have an excellent illustration of the difference between the 
interests of certain capitalists and the usual meaning of capitalism, 
the free market. The copyright regime allows certain moneyed interests 
to pursue what is economically called "rent-seeking" behavior: the 
pursuit of legislation and legal precedent for private benefit, without 
regard for its effect on other people's property rights or personal 
liberties.

Increasingly, it should be obvious that the "intellectual property" 
approach -- the discussion of copyright as a kind of property rather 
than as a special privilege granted to advance a particular public good 
-- exists solely to make this rent-seeking seem legitimate. If copyright 
is "property", then temporal limits upon it seem absurd; after all, we 
do not have limits upon the amount of time any other property ownership 
remains valid.

However, copyright is not property. It is a privilege granted by 
government, which permits a certain party (the copyright holder) to 
forbid others from using their own actual and physical property (e.g. 
hard disks, CD blanks) for particular purposes, namely copying the 
covered works. This privilege may well be legitimate insofar as it 
serves the public benefit, by encouraging the production of original 
works. Yet perhaps it is not so legitimate, in a period of history when 
evidently many artists and creators will create high-quality works 
whilst disclaiming any such protection. I'm not sure.

However, either way, this "intellectual property" talk has to stop. It's 
just a sneaky way of slipping unfounded assumptions (namely, that 
copyright is like property) into the public discourse. Let's call 
property "property", and copyright "copyright" -- and rent-seeking 
"corruption".
>>

(Je precise que je ne suis pas politiquement d'un ultra liberalisme 
debride, mais comme
c'est a la mode et que les institutions mondiales sont
sensees agir au nom du liberalisme, je trouve toujours interessant
de rappeller le point de vue.)

--
Laurent Guerby <address@hidden>