[sldev] My question about intellectual property and Second Life

[Argent Stonecutter]

On 2008-08-29, at 02:46, Darien Caldwell wrote:
> It's shorthand, and for the purpose of debate perfectly fine. And when
> you own copyright on something, you do own it, so it is property. Just
> like when you own a dog or cat, it's property. Although I know some
> would debate that assertion too. :)

But what you own is not the thing that you think you own, what you  
own is a set of monopoly rights. You don't "own the song", you own  
the right to limit performances and distribution of the song. If I  
have an MP3 of you singing the song that I bought from someone that  
didn't have the right to sell it, you don't get to take it away from  
me, you just get to sue the person who distributed that copy to  
recover damages and prevent him from doing it again. It's not like a  
car, where the car will be taken away from the buyer and returned to  
the owner... and the buyer can even find themselves in legal trouble  
over it.

The problem is there's not a better shorthand (like monopoly rights)  
in general use.