Firefox market share bounces back 6707

Good point. You don't find MS filing mbutt lawsuits against their customers (though there is the occasional BSA raid).

I was only attempting to show why the property metaphor has traction; I realize the law treats it differently (as it should).

This is where the patent attorneys will jump in and shout 'patents don't cover ideas!'... but I get your point. As for copyright being used for tangibles, that is not quite right. If I perform a play that I have memorized, I can still violate the authors copyright. Is my performance of the play tangible? Are the bits stored on my Tivo tangible?

Think about it this way. If I take a bunch of scrabble tiles and use them to spell out an author's work and display it in the public square, I can be in violation of the copyright. Now rearrange those tiles into another pattern, and suddenly I am not. Same physical tiles... different content. It is not the tangible medium that is at issue, but the specific expression of content that matters.

Yes, the content industry likes to confuse IP with physical property because it makes it easier for them to justify draconian laws.

Well, we can be even more broad. All law is a social construct that exists only when accepted by the population (whether they like it is another matter).

True. It will be interesting to see if experiments with the public commons and similar licenses will gain traction. If a content revolution on the level of the open source movement picks up steam, it has the potential to really shake up the status quo. I would be pessimistic, but then 'Star Wreck' (a free, independent movie) is topping charts in Finland right now. Who would have thunk it.

Thad