After listening to the scientist's words, Overseer Jackon turned to the Smith siblings. “Do you claim copyright in your ingenious twincestuous trick?”
“Yes, but only to keep this move free for everyone to use and develop further. Current intellectual property laws, in particular copyright law, are so strict and broad that they’re throttling innovation. It’s a wonder that anyone’s still writing stories or inventing stuff at all, given the vast monopolies those egregiously unjust laws grant. We claim intellectual property to all our works and inventions so that no one else can claim them and hinder free use of them. Some intellectual property can help boost innovation, but the current unfair laws not only stifle progress in art and technology, but also infringe upon everyone’s right to freedom of innovation and speech. Copyright, for example, ought to extend no more than about ten years after publication. This is more than enough for artists to reap the fruits of their creative work and would allow a lot more other artists to make a lot more and better art. After all, combining others’ works and building upon them is needed for high quality work in all creative fields, including art, technology, science, and philosophy.
Furthermore, neither copying nor using is stealing; when someone copies or uses someone else’s creative work, they don’t deprive the author of their work. It’s a big lie that copying or using other’s works without permission is stealing, for if you use or copy our work, you don’t in any way hinder us from enjoying, using, developing, and owning our work. The only thing that you do is to rightfully refuse to let us infringe upon your freedom.
Moreover, artists and inventors have been making superb art and great inventions for thousands of years without any intellectual property. This shows that intellectual property isn’t needed for cultural and technological progress.
But what we do insist on is to be credited for all our works and inventions. Plagiarism is really disgusting.”
“Is that true of your ideas as well?” said Gwen.
“Of course,” said the twins. “Stealing ideas is a heinous crime.”
“But ideas can’t be copyrighted,” said the overseer.
“And thankfully so,” said the siblings. “The world is lucky that despite being excessively restrictive, the current intellectual property laws acknowledge that ideas can’t be monopolized and must remain free. We praise this upside of theirs. This freedom is both a fundamental right and needed for creative progress. Everyone’s free to use and build upon our and everyone else’s ideas. But what’s heinous is if someone claims someone else’s idea as their own. This form of plagiarism should be severely punished. We warn every potential plagiarist not to steal our ideas, or else we’ll come after them and wield our telepathic powers to make them pay dearly.” A menacing gleam flickered in the twins’ eyes.
“Ooh, an unmistakable and justified threat!” said Gwen.
“Okay, now that the award ceremony is done, let’s hear a summer song!” boomed Overseer Jackson.
Chapter End Notes:49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGtTyu68YGv
How can we fight against both the excessive intellectual property laws currently in place and rampant plagiarism, which they don’t fight as effectively as they should IMHO?49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡowMRVLniV3
Check out Chapter 4 of my true saga True Telepathic Twins Go Trick-or-Treating to find more arguments against IP and plagiarism.
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