Re: [Gnu-arch-users] [OT] copyright and economic incentive

[zander]

On Sun, Nov 23, 2003 at 10:46:09AM -0800, Tom Lord wrote:
> 

> Perhaps the primary reason for system of copyright is to provide
> economic incentive for authors and inventors doing creative work.[1]
...
> copyright is a mechanism by which the state may grant 
> an economic monopoly regarding some creative work with the aim of
> securing for the writer or inventor a sufficient portion of the
> economic rewards from the work
...
> Recent events demonstrate that if such monopolies are not already
> impractical, they will be unambiguously so within our lifetimes.
> The "right to copy" is no longer something the state can control.

You are obviously confusing patents with copyright.
All the above points are valid wrt patents.  They make no sense in a
discussion about copyright.

Copyright is the legal ownership put on a work. Nothing more. There
is no monopoly, certainly no state controlled one.
The primairy reason is, and always will be, to make the work a legal
entity that can be under the influence of contracts.
The GPL is a good example of such a contract.

-- 
Thomas Zander