Copywrongs

http://www.rollingstone.com/features/featuregen.asp?pid=2529 David Bowie predicted that, because of the Internet and piracy, copyright is going to be dead in ten years. Do you agree? No. If copyright dies, if patents die, if the protection of intellectual property is eroded, then people will stop investing. That hurts everyone. People need to have the incentive so that if they invest and succeed, they can make a fair profit. But on another level entirely, it’s just wrong to steal. Or let’s put it this way: It is corrosive to one’s character to steal. We want to provide a legal alternative. Incentives to innovate do not need to be in form of money Other sorts of currency can be used to stimulate people to achieve great things Social status is one But there are a few that draw their incentives from the desire to do good It is easy enough to point them to the academic values and how this has always stimulated great science. If copyright dies, if patents die, if the protection of intellectual property is eroded then how has scientific innovation survived over the last few thousand years. Innovation doesn’t depend on monetary investments, but depends on great visionary minds. Money doesn’t create innovation, great minds do