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Patents Education

World Intellectual Property Day 302

Posted by Zonk from the break-out-the-party-hats! dept.
Dotnaught writes "The Business Software Alliance wants everyone to know that today is World Intellectual Property Day, 'an initiative to educate young people about how intellectual property rights foster innovation, creativity and economic opportunity.' To mark the occasion, CopyNight, a monthly gathering of people interested in restoring balance in copyright law, is hosting a get-together tonight in various cities throughout the U.S."
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World Intellectual Property Day More

World Intellectual Property Day

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  • World Intellectual Property Day (Score:5, Funny)

    by nebaz ( 453974 ) on Tuesday April 26, 2005 @06:54PM (#12352934)
    Hmmm....
    WIPD (whipped).

    Sounds about right.

    Not even subtle.

    Oh well.
    • For this story, it really would have been more appropriate to copy all the material and link to a .torrent.
    • or as I like to call it, Tuesday.

    • Re:World Intellectual Property Day (Score:5, Funny)

      by cookie_cutter ( 533841 ) on Tuesday April 26, 2005 @07:20PM (#12353215)
      and it's from the BS alliance ...

    • A Bitter Protest Against Copyrights (Score:5, Interesting)

      by argoff ( 142580 ) on Tuesday April 26, 2005 @09:18PM (#12354088)

      Well I for one intend to celebrate by reposting this ....

      A Bitter Protest Against Copyrights

      If they said there was no incentive to do good things unless the government could choose your religion ... or they said there is no incentive to grow food, unless farmers could rip up your garden ... most people would see these as the awful values that they are. But if they say that there is no incentive to make beneficial or creative works without the power to restrict what people copy (copyrights), then all too many people just take it on faith. They don't even question it, as if incentive makes rights, as if society would fall apart without them. But just as much of the Renaissance happened without copyrights so should the information age.

      Calling copyrights "intellectual property" is intellectually dishonest. The moral and historical foundation of property derives from mutual respect and the fact that not everybody can posses something at the same time. The foundation of copyrights derives from kings who granted publishers monopolies in return for not publishing bad things about the monarchy. Copyrights are about control, censorship, and not a free market property. In fact, they cheapen property rights by treating things that have natural limits in supply such as food, shelter, and medicine like information that does not.

      Worse, is how people who copy are slandered with names such as "thief" and "pirate", as if copying was akin to boarding a ship and murdering people. They are even accused of stealing food out of the mouths of starving artists. Yet these verbal assaults hide a cold and calculated lie, the one that says "copyrights benefit creative people". The truth is that for every artist or writer that has made it "big", there are unmentioned thousands whom copyrights haven't helped a bit, hindered, or even destroyed. Some are even barred or sued from sharing their own creations in public, while others die with the world never truly knowing their artistic genius as the mass media drowns them out. Most creators are far better off sharing and distributing their creations freely to make a reputation for themselves. Copyrights not only cause them to be drowned out in a sea of hype, but do so deceptively.

      However, these aren't the only problems related to copyrights. They are just a sample of many that are constantly blown off, glossed over, or ignored. Like the failures of Hollywood culture, the failures of big media to offer quality material, the failures of the market to offer competitively priced books for college students while tabloids are dirt cheap, and massive anti-trust behavior in the software industry to name a few. Their hypocritical pleas like, "how will we make money without copyrights?" is like a mobster asking "how will I make money with out victims to extort?"

      The burdens of imposing copyrights might have been bearable a quarter century ago when the biggest issue was copy machines. But today in the information age there is no technical distinction between copyright content and free speech content. Information is so easy to copy and manipulate, there can be no "middle ground". Our society must make a choice: Our communications will either have to be monitored or free, our privacy will either have to intruded or protected. Our speech, writing, and free expression will either have to be abridged or unabridged. Any institution that has the power to control one, must have the power to control all. Copyrights are like a vine that will never stop growing to choke off our freedoms until we cut it off at the root!

      Consider parallels to other periods of transition like the industrial revolution:

      History teaches that during the 1800's there were many people who believed that the entire meaning and purpose of the industrial revolution was to leverage inventions like the cotton gin to expand their plantations for unlimited growth and profit. Ironically just the opposite was

      • If they said there was no incentive to do good things unless the government could choose your religion ... or they said there is no incentive to grow food, unless farmers could rip up your garden ... most people would see these as the awful values that they are. But if they say that there is no incentive to make beneficial or creative works without the power to restrict what people copy (copyrights), then all too many people just take it on faith. They don't even question it, as if incentive makes rights, a

  • Update!! (Score:4, Funny)

    by peculiarmethod ( 301094 ) on Tuesday April 26, 2005 @06:54PM (#12352936) Journal
    It was just recently reported that 6 of those cities events were cancelled by an injunction filed by national porn chain, Copy Night.

  • Examples? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Chemisor ( 97276 ) on Tuesday April 26, 2005 @06:55PM (#12352946)
    So, who wants to be the first to give us a list of all those wonderful inventions that would have never been invented if it wasn't for the copyright law?
    • DRM? DVD-CSS? Cactus? :)

    • Re:Examples? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Mr Ambersand ( 862402 ) on Tuesday April 26, 2005 @06:58PM (#12352982)
      I'll take a stab at this...
      GCC
      BASH
      GNU/HURD
      Linux
      Minix

      Those are a few of the things which would not have been invented had it not been for copyright law and the restrictions surrounding the use and distribution of UNIX.
      • GNU/HURD has been invented?!?

        When did this happen?

        I thought it was still vaporware.

      • GNU/HURD

        Good to see you have a sense of humor!

        Minix

        This is the only non-GPLed app you list. It was originally under a proprietary license (pre-OSI days) & was relicensed under a BSD license. It was originally a teaching OS & I would argue that if there were no copyrights, professors would still have a need for teaching & so this program would still be written (of course neglecting prior art which may have truly needed copyrights).

        Even under the current license, it "plays fewer games" with cop

        • Even under the current license, it "plays fewer games"

          No doubt. The state of gaming applications on Minix is even more dismal than on MacOS!

        • Re:Examples? (Score:4, Interesting)

          by Mr Ambersand ( 862402 ) on Tuesday April 26, 2005 @07:27PM (#12353270)
          Re: minix
          I deliberately chose that example not because it's Free Software but it was still created in response to the restricted nature of the UNIX source code.

          Andy needed something to base his class on, copyright law kept him from being able to use UNIX, so he wrote Minix. The license he distributed it under (which was a result of the needs of his publisher, if I remember right) is neither here nor there to the point I was making.
          • I deliberately chose that example not because it's Free Software but it was still created in response to the restricted nature of the UNIX source code.
            Fair enough (but then why include Linux, when it was made "just for the fun of it?").

            I would still propose that a teaching OS would be needed had UNIX been freely available. Minix is less daunting than all of that AT&T code would have been.
      • gcc wouldn't have been created if it weren't for copyright law? I think its creator, rms, would beg to differ.
      • Erm, WHAT?

        These utilities of course wouldn't have to be created if not for the _restrictive_ nature of Intellectual property in the software industry! It's like saying that everyone who uses electricity produced from fission driven power plants should thank the 1930-1940's nazi germany for starting WWII because it propelled the inventions surrounding atomic energy (yes, the example is deliberately harsh).

        If not the restrictive nature of the copyright law, those utilities wouldn't have been created in t

    • Re:Examples? (Score:3, Funny)

      by McGiraf ( 196030 )
      SCO Unix sagas ....

    • Re:Examples? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by MrAnnoyanceToYou ( 654053 )
      The amusing thing is that there is a huge list of inventions that are reliant upon both. Ex: the modern RAM module.

      Noone would have put the funds into designing it if they hadn't had the ability to patent the thing. Once they developed it, they patented it. This is just fine with me. However, what's really neato is that all these other companies decided they would reverse engineer / one up them, and therefore a year or two later have faster chips. Works all good.

      The real problem I have with patent

    • Re:Examples? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by JaredOfEuropa ( 526365 )
      Patents protect inventions (and other assorted brain farts that made it past the patent office screening procedure), copyright protects creative works.

      Anyway, do you think companies like IBM would be so enthusiastic in their research into new technologies, if any competitor were allowed to just sit back and copy IBMs methods as soon as they hit the market? In such a patent-free market, those doing the research would actually be at a disadvantage. They'd be first to market, sure, but their competition w

      • Re:Examples? (Score:5, Interesting)

        by MushMouth ( 5650 ) on Tuesday April 26, 2005 @07:27PM (#12353271) Homepage
        I am a fan of IP as well. that last line of your post I take issue with. Every day patents expire, even software patents, however, here in the US copyrights have not expired in years, and it is quite likely no copyrights ever will.

      • Re:Examples? (Score:3, Interesting)

        by cpt kangarooski ( 3773 )
        Anyway, do you think companies like IBM would be so enthusiastic in their research into new technologies, if any competitor were allowed to just sit back and copy IBMs methods as soon as they hit the market? In such a patent-free market, those doing the research would actually be at a disadvantage. They'd be first to market, sure, but their competition would not have to recoup any investment in research, which can be substantial.

        Yes, I think they would be. I think that a great deal of the stuff they get
    • Atlas Shrugged. I think Ayn Rand would've shot herself rather than release a book uncopyrighted.
    • Inventions of physical things are patented, not copyrighted, and unlike copyright which has become nearly perpetual, patents eventually expire. As per your question, here is that list:

  • Cool! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Locke2005 ( 849178 ) on Tuesday April 26, 2005 @06:56PM (#12352959)
    CopyNight, a monthly gathering of people interested in restoring balance in copyright law, is hosting a get-together tonight in various cities throughout the U.S.
    Cool! Does that get-together include a CD/DVD swap session?

  • These guys are getting worse (Score:5, Interesting)

    by LittleLebowskiUrbanA ( 619114 ) on Tuesday April 26, 2005 @06:56PM (#12352963) Homepage Journal
    has anyone here seen the online ads where they ask if you want to get back your old employer by reporting them to the BSA?

  • Copyright is outdated (Score:3, Insightful)

    by EmbeddedJanitor ( 597831 ) on Tuesday April 26, 2005 @06:57PM (#12352975)
    Copyright was intended as a way of protecting the rights of a person to their works. That is fine for something like a book etc.

    Software, particularly OSS, is very different. Much of the value in software is derived from all the testing etc that is done to prove the software and flush out the bugs. I have heard of this being compared to the "stone soup" story. Throw out any (sometimes crappy) software and let people give you feedback. Copyright only protects the interests of the authors - not of those who do all the testing etc. Often the value added by the testers etc is many times the value added by the original authors.

    • Real programmers have sixteen fingers.

      Real programmers have 0x10 fingers.

    • Re:Copyright is outdated (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Dav3K ( 618318 ) on Tuesday April 26, 2005 @07:28PM (#12353281)
      and as such Copywrite WAS fine, so long as the author was alive. Why the hell Disney needs copywrite on Mickey Mouse 70+ years after he is dead is beyond me.

      It's no longer fine for things like a book, etc. The whole system has been perverted by corporate interests and needs an overhaul.
    • Testing software is like proofreading/editing a book.

      Some programs, small utilities, etc can be *perfect* external testing help. Perhaps a short story (or a slashdot post -- not this one) can be perfect without others participating in creation process.

      Then there are massive software solutions that are beyond the capacity of a single skilled developer. For example, Linux. To get something like that right in one lifetime you need a team. Sort of like creating an encyclopedia.

      I have no idea why you thin

    • Copyright was intended as a way of protecting the rights of a person to their works. That is fine for something like a book etc.

      Modern copyright probably starts with the Statute of Anne [wikipedia.org]. It lasted 14 years, with an option to renew for another 14 years. Content consumers were granted freedom from publishers to do with their purchases as they wanted, but content creators were given the right to say who could publish (or republish) their works when, where, and how. This exclusive right was strong incentive

    • Copyright was intended as a way of protecting the rights of a person to their works.

      No it wasn't.

      First, copyright is the right of a person to their works; it's not protecting some other set of rights.

      Second, copyright was intended as a way of promoting the public good, which is served by both increasing the number of original and derivative works created, and by promptly placing those works in the public domain so that they can be free to all. Granting rights to authors is merely a way to accomplish par

  • BSA ? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Rodness ( 168429 ) on Tuesday April 26, 2005 @06:57PM (#12352979)
    The BSA.... aren't they the ones that terrorize small businesses and threaten to audit their software licenses? (And without a glimmer of a search warrant, either.)

    • Re:BSA ? (Score:2, Funny)

      by Rude Turnip ( 49495 )
      They did it to my company one time and let me tell you, it's no picnic. But I got revenge by having Michael Jackson pay a surprise visit during one of their camping trips.
    • The BSA.... aren't they the ones that terrorize small businesses and threaten to audit their software licenses? (And without a glimmer of a search warrant, either.)
      That's what happens when sign a draconian proprietary software license. If you don't want to be audited for your software licenses use free software. Otherwise, no sympathy from me.

    • Re:BSA ? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by rbochan ( 827946 ) on Tuesday April 26, 2005 @08:59PM (#12353966) Homepage
      My chiropractor found out about the BSA the hard way.
      He had 2... count 'em 2, machines in his office, both running Win2k, Microsoft Office, and some accounting and scheduling software. He got a nice little letter from the BSA saying they wanted to do an audit.
      He had no idea where his license info was, it's just him and his wife running a 2-exam-room office and he called me in a panic. I had told him about the Ernie Ball Case [infoworld.com] previously - he was all sorts of freaked out. Short of shelling out hundreds of dollars for new licenses, he was screwed. Granted, Ernie Ball is a larger company that might be able to suck it up, but it could mean financial ruin for a husband & wife operation.
      He's now happily running Debian and OpenOffice on both machines. He had been planning on buying an updated version of his accounting/scheduling software regardless, and we found that it runs perfectly under wine.
      He won't be hearing from the BSA again any time soon.

  • Celibrate (Score:4, Funny)

    by 9mm Censor ( 705379 ) on Tuesday April 26, 2005 @06:58PM (#12352985) Homepage
    I Celibrated by downloading some music and a couple movies.

    *Cheers*

  • Software Freedom Day (Score:5, Funny)

    by HenrikOxUK ( 776979 ) on Tuesday April 26, 2005 @06:58PM (#12352987) Homepage
    Amazing! This is almost exactly the opposite of Software Freedom Day [softwarefreedomday.org]!

  • CopyNight (Score:5, Funny)

    by bailster ( 219960 ) on Tuesday April 26, 2005 @06:58PM (#12352990)
    Strange, I thought "CopyNight" referred to the legendary obscene things people do on the Xerox after returning drunk from the office Xmas party...
  • but innovation and creativity?? Since when does ownership of ideas make people more innovative?

    The far more creative method of human thinking is to express ideas to as many people as possible and have those people alter and improve upon the original. One person sitting in a box alone will come up with boring ideas (unless they are crazy).

    • but innovation and creativity?? Since when does ownership of ideas make people more innovative?

      Ownership of ideas encourages people to invest into research or creating an original work. Research can be a costly undertaking, and even an activity like writing a book requires the writer to invest a great deal of his time. Would a writer make that investment if he knew that anyone at all would be free to copy his work without compensation? Would companies do any research or keep the results of their rese

      • Re:Economic opportunity maybe... (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Of course the writer bloody would, they are writing for the love of it, otherwise they would get a job counting beans or something.

        Why is it so hard for captialist pig dogs to grasp the simple concept that money != motivation, the accumulation of wealth is not the purpose of life.

        Writers write as they have a story they want to share with others.

        Companies would have to do research, or they wouldn't have anything to sell to keep them going. or do you think that when this happens now they should be able to
      • "Would a writer make that investment if he knew that anyone at all would be free to copy his work without compensation?"
        From time to time [craphound.com]. I'm certainly in favor of some level of copyright protection that maximizes overall creativity. But there are other motivations for creativity than financial ones, and the author can continue to profit even if said author allows uncompensated copying.
      • You do realize of course that copyright is NOT based upon the sweat of the brow theory. Investing hard work isn't good enough to get a copyright. This is why the research that goes into, say, a history book CAN be copied out by others without compensation. The historian can't own the facts. He can report on them, but he didn't create them.

        Also neither copyright nor patents protect ideas. Nor do trademarks. Trade secrets approach it, but even they have significant weaknesses.

  • I celebrated (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Profane MuthaFucka ( 574406 ) * <busheatskok@gmail.com> on Tuesday April 26, 2005 @06:59PM (#12353004) Homepage Journal
    By signing up with allofmp3.com. Wish I had done it sooner, it's absolutely fantastic.

    • Re:I celebrated (Score:3, Informative)

      by natrius ( 642724 ) *
      The whole point of paying for music when you could get it off P2P networks is to support an artist whose work you enjoy. If you buy music from allofmp3.com, none of that money goes to the artists. If you want to support artists without getting DRM-laden music, then buy CDs. If you really don't care about the artists and just like how convenient allofmp3.com is, then by means, continue. Making money off of other people's creative works without compensating them is under plain copyright infringement on my mor

  • HEY, WAIT! (Score:5, Funny)

    by lottameez ( 816335 ) on Tuesday April 26, 2005 @06:59PM (#12353006)
    World Intellectual Property Day Was My Idea!

  • Yay! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by syousef ( 465911 ) on Tuesday April 26, 2005 @06:59PM (#12353008) Journal
    Let's celebrate!

    There's so much to celebrate.

    Laws that allow others to lock their ideas away so no one can use them.

    Laws that allow organised price fixing.

    Laws that allow people to own ideas that should belong to everyone. Everything down to your own DNA has some form of IP on it.

    Rejoice world.

    Gimme a break!

    • Re:Yay! (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Dan Up Baby ( 878587 )
      Laws that allow creators to benefit from their works.

      Laws that mean companies must innovate to succeed.

      Laws that allow people to own ideas that are the result of their time.

      Laws that incite people to go over the top at Drudge-esque lengths by claiming that somebody's going to copyright your DNA.

      Okay, well, I like the first three things.
      • Laws that allow creators to benefit from their works.

        But it doesn't profit me for creators to benefit from their works. In fact, that benefit probably derives from me, so in fact it's harmful. How can you justify harming me so?

        Laws that mean companies must innovate to succeed.

        Innovation is good, but refinement and commoditizing are also good. It's great to invent the first light bulb, but light bulbs are better when they last longer, are very inexpensive, are very cheap, and can be had anywhere or mad

        • Re:Yay! (Score:2, Insightful)

          by RagingR2 ( 878908 )
          But it doesn't profit me for creators to benefit from their works. In fact, that benefit probably derives from me, so in fact it's harmful. How can you justify harming me so?

          This is complete nonsense. Anyone who produces something is allowed to benefit from it. How is producing software any different? If you considering paying for stuff you use harmful, then maybe you shouldn't buy anything from now on... at all. But if you decide to keep buying stuff, be so kind to explain why paying for software is more

  • A perfect judo move (Score:3)

    by Infonaut ( 96956 ) <infonaut@gmail.com> on Tuesday April 26, 2005 @07:00PM (#12353015) Homepage Journal
    I've got a feeling this is going to be like a lot of those Klan marches, where about 50 idiots in white sheets show up, and 4,000 demonstrators are there to greet them.

    WIPD is a protest-magnet, and the CopyNight people have simply used WIPD's big-money marketing of the event against them. It will be interesting to see if WIPD is "quietly" discontinued next year.

    • > I've got a feeling this is going to be like a lot of those Klan marches, where about 50 idiots in white sheets show up, and 4,000 demonstrators are there to greet them.
      >
      > WIPD is a protest-magnet, and the CopyNight people have simply used WIPD's big-money marketing of the event against them. It will be interesting to see if WIPD is "quietly" discontinued next year.

      I've got a feeling this is going to be like a lot of those WTO protests, where about 50 idiots in suits show up, along with 50 agen

  • Wow! (Score:3, Funny)

    by ta bu shi da yu ( 687699 ) on Tuesday April 26, 2005 @07:01PM (#12353028) Homepage
    Can we also have a "jail BSA executive day" as well?
  • 32 different companies filed law suites stating that this was infact a violation of something they had patented earlier.
  • Well if you had posted this sooner, I would have grabbed a few things on the way out of the office today!

  • I've seen a DVD or two with an overly-long commercial at the beginning that likens copying movies to stealing cars or purses, etc.

    All that's missing from the BSA now is some sort of analog to this.

    Using patented algorithms (as obvious as some are) is like...

  • How About A Libre Software Day? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Goo.cc ( 687626 ) * on Tuesday April 26, 2005 @07:06PM (#12353085)
    Personally, I would love to see a worldwide Libre (Free) Software Developer Appreciation day. The authors of free software have given all of us so much, that some thanks and recognition would seem to be the least we could do for them.

  • Timing is crucial. (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Foktip ( 736679 )
    Notice how they made it DURING EXAMS?

    That way, all those free-spirited, pirates will be too busy studying their asses off to give a hoot about it. "intellectual property day". LOL.

  • Original Copyright (Score:3, Insightful)

    by daigu ( 111684 ) on Tuesday April 26, 2005 @07:11PM (#12353140) Journal

    You mean all that innovation that comes from 1-Click software patents, the Happy Birthday song [snopes.com], Winnie the Pooh [fortune.com], etc.

    If you look at the Constitution [findlaw.com], copyright covers: "[o]nly the writings and discoveries of authors and inventors...and then only to the end of promoting science and the useful arts."

    Original ideas should not become commodities that are transferred to purchasers and assignees - which is the problem with all the examples above.

  • But of course (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 26, 2005 @07:11PM (#12353147)

    We already have a World Cancer Day and a World AIDS day, why shouldn't we have a World Intellectual Property Day too? I'd like to give my support to all the victims of Intellectual Property and I'm sure a lot of other people would too.

  • Language change please (Score:3, Interesting)

    by cookie_cutter ( 533841 ) on Tuesday April 26, 2005 @07:17PM (#12353196)
    We'll never be able to deny IP rights as long as we call them rights. After all, denying someone their rights is wrong by definition.

    We have to recognize, and incorporate into our dialogue, that these concepts are better termed IP conventions; ie, things which are adopted because they are convenient in practice.

    Only then will we be able to cogently argue against them when they cease to be convenient for the public as a whole, and decide how to adjust them to maximize their convenience.

    • We'll never be able to deny IP rights as long as we call them rights. After all, denying someone their rights is wrong by definition. We have to recognize, and incorporate into our dialogue, that these concepts are better termed IP conventions; ie, things which are adopted because they are convenient in practice.

      Unfortunately, I think that fight was lost some time in the 19th century when the term "Intellectual Property" was coined in a successful move to extend copyright terms. The fact that every type

      • Unfortunately, I think that fight was lost some time in the 19th century when the term "Intellectual Property" was coined in a successful move to extend copyright terms.

        They changed the language then, and we can change it again today. All that's required for the language to change is for enough people to start using the new language.

  • Google is known for changing their logo for every obscure holiday. But to their credit google is not acknowledging this "holiday."

  • Fish (Score:3, Funny)

    by junkmail ( 99106 ) on Tuesday April 26, 2005 @07:26PM (#12353268)
    Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. License a man to fish using your technology and you eat for the rest of his life.

  • Classic.. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by __int64 ( 811345 ) on Tuesday April 26, 2005 @07:32PM (#12353305)

    "We must continue our shared public-private efforts to deter piracy and promote intellectual property rights in every corner of the globe. Our children's ability to learn, create and innovate must be protected now and in the decades ahead."

    A classic maneuver; stating two unrelated topics in the same paragraph deceiving lay readers into drawing nonexistent conclusions between them. This is especially prevalent with statistics, where correlations between two data sets are often shown (which do exist), but where any actual connection between the two is purely happenstance. For example: "After using product X for 2 weeks Rob's weight dropped 25 pounds." At first glance Rob's use of product X and his weight seem to be related, but their not. The real reason for his weight drop was he stopped having his hourly burrito during that time period.

    - Piracy and children have nothing in common, and this man's an asshole for even implying such a connection exists.

  • The Business Software Alliance wants everyone to know that today is World Intellectual Property Day

    Yes - they WANT everyone to know that. But since I Trademarked "World Intellectual Property Day" - they will be required to pay me (inserts pinky in mouth) one-million dollars - ah ha ha ha ha ha ha!

  • Did you catch the text at the bottom? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by mikeophile ( 647318 ) on Tuesday April 26, 2005 @07:44PM (#12353413)
    P.S.: apologies for the very US-centric map which makes Toronto appear not to be on dry land - I'd welcome pointers to any usable (public domain or Creative Commons) maps that include Canada. - David

    What a surprise, they don't want to pay for intellectual property either.

  • intellectual property rights foster innovation, creativity and economic opportunity
    Except it doesn't foster innovation or creativity, its all about making money - usually by slightly amoral means.
  • World Intellectual Property Day eh? From our good friends at the BSA (oh, how appropriate the acronym, but I digress).

    How about ingrown-toenail day? BSOD day? Stomach ulcer day? Patent appreciation day?

    It's a regular party. :)
  • To mark the occasion, CopyNight, a monthly gathering of people interested in restoring balance in copyright law, is hosting a get-together tonight in various cities throughout the U.S."

    Wow. Sounds like fun.

    If you're a square.

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