Ecb at 16:06, 22 September 2010

Ecb — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 16:06:32 GMT

← Older revision		Revision as of 16:06, 22 September 2010
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	the form of intellectual property.		the form of intellectual property.
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		+	''See also [[Nanosocialism]].''

Ecb: Created page with 'Category:Everyday Life In the First Wave civilizations, the fundamental source of wealth was land, on which cattle could graze or food crops could be raised. In the [[Sec…'

Ecb — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 01:54:25 GMT

Created page with 'Category:Everyday Life In the First Wave civilizations, the fundamental source of wealth was land, on which cattle could graze or food crops could be raised. In the [[Sec…'

New page

[[Category:Everyday Life]]
In the [[First Wave]] civilizations, the fundamental source of
wealth was land, on which cattle could graze or food crops
could be raised. In the [[Second Wave]] civilizations, land gave
way to capital, the ownership of industrial machinery. [[Third Wave]] and later civilizations still make use of land and capital,
but today the fundamental source of wealth is information.

Whether encoded as algorithms in a computer, sequences
of DNA, or the molecular structure of a [[nanotech]] device, information
has defined wealth since late in the 20th century. The
most critical feature of information is that it can easily be duplicated.
It’s possible to define who owns a given piece of land or
a given item of industrial equipment, but any number of people
can “own” the same piece of information. Even the physical
representations of information – computer programs,
genetic sequences, or nanodevices – can easily be copied (in
fact, some of them tend to copy themselves). In any case, new
information is normally useless until it is shared widely.

So how can someone who develops new, useful information
make a profit, especially in cases where such development
is very expensive? The answer is the legal concept of intellectual
property. The developer holds the exclusive right to make
copies of the information, expressed in a patent or copyright
which is enforced by the state. As long as he holds this right,
he can sell copies for any price the market will meet, usually
many times what it costs to simply produce the copies. Anyone
else who attempts to make copies (other than for individual,
private use) can be punished with civil or criminal penalties. In
this way, an artificial scarcity is imposed on the information,
keeping its price high enough so that its owner can make a
profit.

Like many legal concepts, intellectual property is a fiction,
viable only as long as everyone agrees to be bound by it. Such
agreement has sometimes been hard to come by. Even in 2000,
fierce controversies were breaking out over the ownership of
computer software, digital recordings of music, genetically
engineered seeds, and other forms of intellectual property.
Whenever the public saw too great a discrepancy between the
value of information and the price charged for it, piracy
became widespread. Individuals copied software, recordings,
genetic and nanonic designs. Entire nations, falling behind in
the race for technical innovation, chose not to enforce the international
agreements protecting intellectual property. Property owners
struck back with punitive laws and elaborate
anti-piracy technology. In many ways, the conflict over intellectual
property has defined the 21st century, just as the conflict
over capital property defined the 20th century.

The conflict continues today, with whole ideologies devoted
to one side or the other of the struggle. It has often been a
matter of life of death, as when intellectual property issues
preclude the distribution of cheap “generic” drugs to fight
killer diseases. Many an adventure in the [[Fifth Wave]] environment
can turn on the struggle for ownership of information in
the form of intellectual property.

Intellectual Property - Revision history

Ecb at 16:06, 22 September 2010

Ecb: Created page with 'Category:Everyday Life In the First Wave civilizations, the fundamental source of wealth was land, on which cattle could graze or food crops could be raised. In the [[Sec…'