One of the half truths we are told about copyright and patent laws is that it protects the people who come up with the ideas. If we reward people for coming up with new ideas, that should encourage more ideas, right?

Well the truth is very much more complex than that.

Ultimately such laws end up locking away almost all of societies knowledge in the hands of large corporations and the control/profit of the few in the long term. There are a great many tricks used, but that is where it ultimately always leads to.

Knowledge does not actually come immediately all at once in its most perfect form. It takes a while to build idea upon idea and then get it to the point where a modern society can function.

Take any one device. How many people ultimately had something to do with that invention?

If you think that is a few inventors, think again. The concept of electricity, wiring, an electrical grid, math, materials science, and the list goes on and on. If you take an MP3 player for example, you go back thousands of years and more people that can possibly be listed

to get society to the level where it could be created. Once society gets to the point where the last part of the puzzle if put in place, yes that is significant. There is a balance though.

And what about the artist or the inventor who comes up with something?

Honestly, laws now tend to give all rights to corporations that paid for this, not the individuals that made it.

As a musician, if I wrote a piece of music and had it published, very often the corporation disseminating the music would take the rights as a part of the agreement

The business then could restrict me from being able to copy my own music. It can legally bury my work if they wanted to.

This is just one example. There will be a lot of people who disagree about this issue of course.

Look at courts though. They are biased as well

Honestly, the same 3 chords and the same basic elements are behind most of the music we know in one way or another. There are going to be quite a lot of elements that repeat a lot. When is something copyright infringement and when is it not? Often that depends on who has more $$$

Take a step back. Look at where things have gone now. Do regular normal people have more or less power to think and come up with new stuff with or without a very restrictive set of copyright/patent laws?

Honestly it really is far less. Now even genetics have been privatized

As time goes on, when laws regarding who owns informtion becomes too strict, it makes it impossible for a society to progress past a certain point. This is NOT my opinion. This is the opinion of The Council.

I understand people not wanting others to take their work.

It is good to reward someone fairly for work well done. But the bigger problem is that knowledge grows when many share it and does not when people do not.

Right now we see some of what happens when information goes only to the deepest pockets. There is more that happens.

Just ask yourself for a second, what would have happened if the cheap energy tech got out that Tesla and others found? What would it have meant to society?

Do you think that corrupt companies can be allowed to keep hiding medical developments?

How many cancer victims would still be alive now or in good health if information was freely shared?

How many do you think would have autism if people knew certain things that are now intentionally hidden?

Think of what locking up information means in the real world.

If knowledge belongs to who is powerful enough to profit off of it, we WILL ALWAYS see information intentionally limited. There cannot be one without the other. It does NOT lead to more information and advancements, but rather less. People seek profits not the welfare of others.

Do you think that we should keep this model going into the Era of Peace?

Do you think that fairly rewarding someone for a job well done means that society should suffer in darkness and despair as we have been?

A great many bits of tech and medical stuff are being hidden now.

This is not just a small off topic rant. How we deal with information is crucially important to how our society develops going forward. It deeply affects progress and quality of life. It deeply affects our health and lifespans.

Many things need to change. Many things will change