Intellectual Monopoly
"The Congress shall have Power To promote the
Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors
and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and
Discoveries."
-- The United States
Constitution, Article I
The
Constitution makes it clear that the goal of granting a monopoly over an idea --
whether an invention or a book -- is to promote creativity. The idea is that if
there was no monopoly on an idea, nobody would have the incentive to create
something new. This seems reasonable. On the other hand, this monopoly also has
a negative effect, by preventing other authors from exploring similar ideas. The
key is finding a balance that encourages innovation without stifling
it.
I write software for a living, and
if once I released it, everybody copied it freely, I may not have written it in
the first place. The question is how much of a monopoly you have to give me to
get me to write it.
Most software has a
useful sales life of less than five years. I'm sure, somewhere, there's
software that still makes more than 1% of its total revenue after it's five
years old, but it would be hard to find. The original term of copyright
protection was 17 years,
Filed Sat
- June 4, 2005, 12:06 PM in
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