[d@DCC] What is "intellectual property"?

[Jason Young]

>The protection is offered by the Copyright act.  If the concept of
>ownership applies at all, what they 'own' is not the expression but the
>copyright.  Whatever rights that 'ticket' allows them is what they own,
>nothing more.

Without expression, there can be no copyright protection. Giving 
copyright some unique life of its own separate from expression of the 
idea engenders the expropriation attitude, which I think you 
correctly point out is a big problem.

>If it is understood that they only own 'whatever rights that these laws
>offer at this time and place', and not the idea itself (or even an
>expression of the idea), this clarifies things considerably.

Nobody is saying they own the idea, unless you're talking about biz 
patents and then we're into a whole other ballgame. But copyright is 
about owning - in a limited sense - the particular expression of an 
idea. There's no getting around that unless you want to get rid of 
copyright altogether.
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