The Case for Copyright Reform by Christian Engström, Rick Falkvinge Read Free Book Online

systems
have been installed, they can be used for any purpose that the ones in charge
of them see fit.
     
    You may well feel that you have “nothing to hide” right now when it
comes to file sharing, if you are not doing it. But can you be certain that you
will always have “nothing to hide” when it comes to expressing views that
future governments may not like? How do you know that you would want to be
unquestioningly loyal to the government the next time it slips into
McCarthyism, or worse, and starts listing and blacklisting people with certain
political sympathies?
     
    If you build a system for mass surveillance, there will be a system for
mass surveillance ready the day someone wants to use it for other purposes.
This is the bottom line in the file sharing debate.
     
    #
     

Chapter 4
Copyright Is Not Property
     
    The Copyright Monopoly Is A Limitation Of Property Rights The concept of
property is older than history, probably as old as mankind itself.
     
    But the copyright monopoly is not a property right. It is a limitation
of property rights. Copyright is a government-sanctioned private monopoly that
limits what people may do with things they have legitimately bought.
     
    All too often, we hear the copyright lobby talk about theft, about
property, about how they are robbed of something when someone makes a copy.
This is, well, factually incorrect. It is a use of words that are carefully
chosen to communicate that the copyright monopoly is property, or at the very
least comparable to property rights.
     
    This is only rhetoric from the copyright lobby in an attempt to justify
the monopoly as righteous: to associate “the copyright monopoly” with a
positive word such as “property”. However, when we look at the monopoly in reality,
it is a limitation of property rights.
     
    Let’s compare two pieces of property: a chair and a DVD.
     
    When I buy a chair, I hand over money for which I get the chair and a
receipt. This chair has been mass-produced from a master copy at some sort of
plant. After the money has changed hands, this particular chair is mine. There
are many more like it, but this one is mine. I have bought one of many
identical copies and the receipt proves it.
     
    As this copy of the chair is mine, exclusively mine, there are a number
of things I can do with it. I can take it apart and use the pieces for new
hobby projects, which I may choose to sell, give away, put out as exhibits or
throw away. I can put it out on the porch and charge neighbors for using it. I
can examine its construction, produce new chairs from my deductions with some
raw material that is also my property, and do whatever I like with the new
chairs, particularly including selling them.
     
    All of this is normal for property. It is mine; I may do what I like
with it. Build copies, sell, display, whatever.
     
    As a sidetrack, this assumes that there are no patents on the chair.
However, assuming that the invention of the chair is older than 20 years, any
filed patents on this particular invention have expired. Therefore, patents are
not relevant for this discussion.
     
    Now, let’s jump to what happens when I buy a movie.
     
    When I buy a movie, I hand over money and I get the DVD and a receipt.
This movie has been mass-produced from a master copy at some sort of plant.
After the money has changed hands, this particular movie is mine. There are
many more like it, but this one is mine. I have bought one of many identical
copies and the receipt proves it.
     
    But despite the fact that this copy of the movie is mine, exclusively
mine, there are a number of things that I may not do with it, prohibited from
doing so by the copyright monopoly held by somebody else. I may not use pieces
of the movie for new hobby projects that I sell, give away, or put out as
exhibits. I may not charge the neighbors for using it on the porch. I may not
examine its construction and produce new copies. All of these rights would be
normal for