No Signs of Intelligence here.

I got a wonderful response from Susannity about an earlier post I made on the topic of media reproducibility. It was a very common response,

"If someone creates intellectual property that can be copied easily, then why would folks pay money if there were no [ramifications?]"

I think people will pay for what they perceive as valuable, and I believe that currently our perceived value of some items is skewed. However, the very idea of "intellectual property" is silly. If you can show me an original idea, I will be very very surprised. I remember sitting watching a movie with my English major spouse who had gotten up early in the movie and said "You can keep watching, I'm not interested." I, of course, wondered why. She responded, "The brunette is going to die." I finished the movie, and my dear spouse explained how in literature there is a bit of formula, which she applied to the movie and identified the story type, and thus concluded the ending of the movie. So really, there are no original ideas, and thus "intellectual property" is bogus. It is a farce, a scam, a trick to keep money centralized.

What? You believe patents are to prevent someone from stealing your product and getting it to market first? I laugh at you. Don't be so naive. Large corporations have people who literally sit and write patents all year long to protect "ideas." Which I will point out are not patentable. I once came across a patent for a dog toy -- It was a stick of wood. I'm not kidding. That system is broken.

So, again, I'm not saying one should take someones movie and turn around and sell it for money. That would mean you are a fool for stealing. However, if I buy a $20 for a DVD, and copy it and give it to my friend, who intern gives it to a friend ... to the Nth. Well suffice it to say, I believe I was ripped off by at least $19 for that DVD, and should be able to give away -- no, "donate", my $20 copy of a DVD to my friends. If a movie were hard to get, if it required the producers of the DVD more than $0.01 per 1000 copies of a DVD, then maybe $20 would be worth it. These corporations are making billions, when they are only producing something that is worth pennies -- and you are being robbed. You are so used to being robbed you've accepted it as the price of entertainment.

"Piracy discounts everything - time, education, talent, and money - that goes into making a product."

This is probably true, but I also believe that piracy discounts the cost of things that are over priced. If you buy something that you know is stolen, you are doing so in part because you feel that the full price is not of value, or you believe the "knock-off" value is more appropriate. I said originally "How much would you pay for a blade of grass?" Maybe you'd respond that it depends on the quality of the grass?

If I steal your food, I'm a thief -- I've deprived you of your food. If you give me some seed and pollen so I can make my own food, will you starve? If I play your song you can still sing it and make money, you have not lost your voice. If I play it better, I will have earned the money I make from playing your song, but you are not deprived of your song or your ability.

As someone who works in technology, I believe what I provide is a service to my corporation and for those that I produce software. I am simply a story teller, retelling the story I learned, twisting the plot, changing the landscape, mixing stories together. I'm getting paid for retelling the story, not for the story itself. Once you've learned my story, feel free to tell it to your friends and your children. And please, put your pennies in my tin if I tell the story better than someone else.

A friend once said to me -- "Quit thinking outside of the box. We have enough boxes. Lets put something together with what we've got."