Re: [ARSCLIST] land--was: Letter on British Copyright Term Extension

[Karl Miller <lyaa071@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, 16 May 2006, steven c wrote:

> > What I'd like to know is how one justifies the perpetual ownership of real
> estate!
> >
> Simply put, there aren't really practical alternatives. If individuals
> do not and cannot own the land, some other entity has to. The government?
> The church? Who?

Indeed the justification for perpetual ownership of anything is an odd
notion. "No persons have more right to land than other
persons, but concentrations of power use force to maintain the illusion of
ownership of land."

http://www.n55.dk/MANUALS/DISCUSSIONS/N55_TEXTS/AB_LAND.html

I believe the same can be said for copyright, unfortunately, or so it
seems to me...the copyrights are flawed even from a fundamentally capitalistic
perspective.

Adding to my frustration is the notion that some believe there should be
perpetual ownership of intellectual property, which implies the "right"
to forever withhold that information, "property," from the public.

Karl