Property is that which you physically and exclusively control, and have created or otherwise have a natural right to. It is something that you can exchange or can give to another. Try not to focus beyond that.
To make it easier to explain, an example of such property is a secret formula you write in a diary.
You could sell this formula to someone if they were convinced only you had it and it was valuable. Once you’ve sold it, it is no longer your secret.
It doesn’t matter that you haven’t destroyed your diary. The property was the secret, and you no longer have that secret.
It doesn’t matter that what you sold was transformed in the process of exchange (from a secret to a ‘restricted knowledge distribution’), you and the purchaser considered the exchange equitable. You now have more money instead of a secret. They have a formula which they didn’t have before, and less money.
This buyer, could instead have burgled your house, taken a photo of your diary, and thereby STOLEN your secret.
It doesn’t matter whether you knew about this or not, the fact remains that the burglar had to breach your privacy and property in order to remove something of value from you. You lost the secret.
Naturally, owners of secrets are conscious that they may be stolen without their knowledge and are sensitive to clues that theft may have occurred, e.g. previously keen purchasers suddenly claiming they’ve found someone else who also has a good formula.
Unfortunately, copyright makes people think that all intellectual property is a pretence, even private intellectual property. This is because copyright is about pretending that public intellectual property is still privately owned when it plainly isn’t. So, don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater when you ignore copyright. You’re reclaiming the public’s rightful ownership of published intellectual property, you are not also claiming ownership of people’s private intellectual property – that’s still theirs to keep or sell.
“Property is that which you physically and exclusively control, and have created or otherwise have a natural right to. It is something that you can exchange or can give to another. Try not to focus beyond that.”
Sorry, I want to focus beyond that.
The problem I have is that what you are calling property here cannot be stolen from you.
Unless, perhaps, you are willing to stipulate that is is the secretness itself and not the subject matter of the secret which is your property?
Or unless perhaps I steal the diary with the secret formula and you have actually forgotten it?
Otherwise, I can wrongly convert your secret knowledge to public knowledge, but I cannot take the knowledge itself from you.
What other property behaves in this fashion?
all the best,
drew
Comment #000073 at
2007-01-14 12:55
by
Property is that which you physically and exclusively control, and have created or otherwise have a natural right to. It is something that you can exchange or can give to another. Try not to focus beyond that.
To make it easier to explain, an example of such property is a secret formula you write in a diary.
You could sell this formula to someone if they were convinced only you had it and it was valuable. Once you’ve sold it, it is no longer your secret.
It doesn’t matter that you haven’t destroyed your diary. The property was the secret, and you no longer have that secret.
It doesn’t matter that what you sold was transformed in the process of exchange (from a secret to a ‘restricted knowledge distribution’), you and the purchaser considered the exchange equitable. You now have more money instead of a secret. They have a formula which they didn’t have before, and less money.
This buyer, could instead have burgled your house, taken a photo of your diary, and thereby STOLEN your secret.
It doesn’t matter whether you knew about this or not, the fact remains that the burglar had to breach your privacy and property in order to remove something of value from you. You lost the secret.
Naturally, owners of secrets are conscious that they may be stolen without their knowledge and are sensitive to clues that theft may have occurred, e.g. previously keen purchasers suddenly claiming they’ve found someone else who also has a good formula.
Unfortunately, copyright makes people think that all intellectual property is a pretence, even private intellectual property. This is because copyright is about pretending that public intellectual property is still privately owned when it plainly isn’t. So, don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater when you ignore copyright. You’re reclaiming the public’s rightful ownership of published intellectual property, you are not also claiming ownership of people’s private intellectual property – that’s still theirs to keep or sell.