Intellectual Property

especially from the perspective of the future..

What is Intellectual Property• Extension of concept of physical property to works of

the mind• Types of things considered protectable as IP– physical inventions– processes – software– data aggregations– written works– music– movies– concepts (!)

IP Types

• Copyright– Exclusive rights of the creator, usually for a limited time.

• Copyleft• Creative Commons

• Patent – Exclusive rights granted for limited period in exchange for disclosure

of invention• Trade Secret

– Simply don't tell anyone about some internal technology or knowledge.

• Trademark– Distinguishing sign or mark unique to a company, person or

organization

CC license components

• Attribution (CC BY)• Attribution Share Alike (CC BY-SA)• Attribution No Derivatives (CC BY-ND)• Attribution Non-Commercial (CC BY-NC)• Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike (CC

BY-NC-SA)• Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives

(CC BY-NC-ND)

Is Intellectual Property valid?

• Is the concept "property" only applicable to physical things? – Is the concept of "property" reasonably vetted in

general?• Does IP enforcement further human progress

or impede it?– In what aspects does it do so?– Is it enforceable?• Does its enforcement entail to much of an evil?

Is IP protection valid?

• For what forms of IP is what kind of protection valid?– What sort of time limits should be on different

protections?– What type of restrictions and allowances are enforced?– What kinds of enforcement are reasonable?

• What kind of due process rights should be in place?

• What is the cost of IP on the future?• Who decides this and by what process?

– How are these agreements challenged and amended?

Protect IP Act (now E-Parasite?)

• Can shut down any search engine– For even claims it indexes infringing content

• See DMCA

– Huge threat to the net as we know it and all information compilations and navigation tools

• Even DNS servers would be obliged to remove links to supposed offenders– Dropping sites into a black hole

• Effectively shutters the global brain out of fear.• Step toward censorship on a global scale within the

internet?

IP Con

• Intellectual property are ideas.. not things– Balkanization of knowledge, technology, mind

• Bad enforcement consequences• Opaque and costly to use, fight or avoid• Restraint on future action – of unknown parties

• A government granted monopoly

Bad Effects

• Arbitrary Control• Blocks Creativity• Chills Innovation• Criminalization• Protects outdate business models• Roadblocks on Information Superhighway– Imagine a young AGI trying to obey all IP

restrictions..

IP Pro

• Right of self-ownership implies right:– To physical property– To ones work and the results thereof

• Rights of creator– To benefit from having created something of value

to others– To control terms of dissemination/use to some

degree• Incentives to more creation and progress

Summation• We need to maximize

– Innovation• Reward innovation• Increase amount of innovation• Increase access to innovation

– Virtuous feedback loop

– Intelligence and ability• We need to minimize

– Restrain on invention and creativity– Artificial scarcity– Enshrining first comers– Limiting human and AI capabilities

• Utterly refuse to have our global brain sliced and diced– Fight by all means the breaking of synapses and the induced stroke implied by E-

Parasite