They don’t when you’re bribing the law makers.

I don’t care what your arguments are. Certain types of legislation is unacceptable. In the same manner that sovjet information control was unacceptable. Support such laws and you’re suddenly no longer a person, nor worthy of respect. Just an enemy to be stepped on. Just another idiot to be ignored or circumvented.

History has shown, time and time again, that IP doesn’t work. You think today IP is the most valuable “commodity”? You are wrong. IP is, in essence, legalized information control. In the very brief time it has been pushed we’ve already seen it starting to crack at the seams. Like the old ideas of planned economy and communism, IP is heading for history’s rubbish bin.

Simply because “Intellectual Property” is only accepted by human society and human nature in very minor ways. Paternity right, brand names – things that correspond to and synergize well with what being “human” is all about.

And you calling it “theft” when person A copies information from person B only underscores the point that you have detached yourself from the real world in a way you’d normally see only in severe autists or religious fanatics.

Every attempt to restrict the sharing of information between individuals has caused the same effects – zip impact on filesharing, and collateral damage causing an ever-growing awareness and anger in the common citizenry. That is not changing – if anything, this process is speeding up.

Einstein had a definition on insanity, that being that the person trying the same thing twice expecting different outcomes was a madman in his book. IP-enforcement has been trying the same models since the 50′s and if anything can only display bigger failures today than back then.

Right now IP is big. It’s seen by shortsighted politicians as the one and only hope of countering the fact that China and India own the export market of physical goods. That, however, is also rapidly changing. Ten more years and China will start to hold the upper hand there as well – just as they promised they’d own the manufacturing market, they’ve bet on owning the IP portfolios. We already see asian companies successfully competing in the slurry of lawsuits and it’s a question of when, not if, they successfully trounce the west on that board also. Meaning if the current legislation stands, no western company will be able to innovate or create much of anything without first begging for a license from overseas.

You will most likely live to see IP being torn out of any and all international treaties by the very actors who put them there, in wild desperation, once they notice they handed over complete dominance over those markets as well to the east. That’s fairly obvious by anyone who’s even considered what Intellectual Property in modern interpretation really means. It’s what many economists have warned about – including Milton Friedman, otherwise highly keen on property rights.

IP, like communism, sounds good only as a theorethical abstract on paper. In the real world it’s a slow but inevitable disaster unable to coexist with a society made of human beings.

Disagree as much as you like. But if I were you IP is the last thing i’d hang any longterm investments on.

Real talent doesn’t need to defend itself from anything. Geniuses like Trent Reznor can give away their stuff for free and still earn multiple millions in a single year selling copies of what they already gave away.

Imagine if you made any sense at all and took a long hard look at reality instead of what you erronously believe to be the truth for once.

Many are called. Few are chosen. It’s ridiculous to assume that anyone who calls themselves an “artist” should be guaranteed protections for their field when no other profession has that sort of protection. There are thousands of PhD’s flipping burgers in drivethroughs or driving taxi cabs simply because the job market doesn’t hold a niche for them.

If Paulo Coelho, Trent Reznor, even Rebecca Black can profit from giving away music for free then you have no case. And they can.

In fact, the existence of bottled water disproves your claims. Why buy an expensive bottle when in many places the tap water is just as good? Even asking the question would see you laughed out of any marketing meeting.

Politician 1: Ok, According to you we lose hundreds of billions and more jobs than there are citizens in this country. That can’t be right?

Lobby group starts smear campaign, politician 1′s campaign funding mysteriously vanishes and he never sees ofice again.

Politician 2: Well, I don’t buy this BS anymore than my predecessor but I’d really like to remain in this office. Is there anything we can do in order to ensure i continue to get funded – i.e. please Chris Dodd enough?

Lobby group places pre-written law on desk.

Politician 2: …This is insane. I haven’t even read half of it but this is insane. If i don’t push it though i’m out of office.
I’ve got it. I’ll push it and ensure the proposal and committee reviews leaks to the public. If they start protesting loudly enough I’ve got a way out, if not my ass is covered when I push the legislation through!

And that’s more or less what happened when the shitstorm of anti-SOPA/PIPA sentiment hit a hundred offices in congress and senate.

And therefore the reason for IP / Copyright must be properly understood. It is not ownership. It is civil privelidge for cultural creators to have sufficient advantage to be worth creating in the first place. The intent is a net gain in culture. That advantage must expire. Soon. When IP / Copyright is used to deny and withhold then things are wrong. DMCA is a rotten law written by the content industry on the delusion that it can control people. It can’t. Sharing was limited pre-internet because of the economics of sharing. Copying a book cost more than the book in most cases. People share music, books, papers and so on, always have. The Internet just makes that easier.