musings on interesting ideas

Once you have written something, either words or music, it is automatically your copyright. What people usually do is send a copy of the material to themselves by recorded delivery. At some later stage you can take this to a lawyer (unopened) and this proves that the material existed at that point in time. The idea of copyright is that it protects the author from other people stealing their material.

It is interesting to note that there is no way of protecting ideas themselves. There are patents but in most of the world (excluding the USA) they relate to how something is produced not the actual idea itself. Design marks cover the design of an article and trademarks cover letters or marks which are part of your brand.

As we move into an “ideas” economy these mechanisms seem to be coming under pressure. One group believes that we have to protect ideas but there is no consensus on how you would actually do this. Another group believes that ideas should be freely accessible and transmissible so that a new economy can take off.

One interesting variation of copyright is that of “copyleft”. Copyleft is the same, legally, as copyright and comes under the same protection. However copyleft (of which there are a number of versions) specifically states that:

• You can freely use the material in any way that you want provided that:
  • You leave the copyleft message on the message.
  • You do not make money out of the material.
  • You must submit any improvements and corrections back to the author.

This is interesting because it allows for the free flow of information and for its use. It also means that the author gets some pay back in that the material is constantly improved and their name always appears on it.

Oh - yes - and most of the web exists because of copyleft - apache, linux, perl, etc.

Copyleft and copyright reminds me of the ongoing argument on whether it is better to censor some information or have it all freely available.