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Message: <blockquote data-quote="woodelf" data-source="post: 1467705" data-attributes="member: 10201">Actually, you've got it backwards. Copyright is the right to copy something--it is very specifically about the presentation not the underlying content/idea. Copyright can not protect an idea, only a specific expression of it. You need patent to protect an idea. The point of copyright (at least originally) is very precisely to prevent anyone but the creator or authorized agents from making more copies, so as to provide the creator with income from any copies that are made/distributed. The idea is to give incentive to creators to create, so as to benefit the common good. The part that has been forgotten (or changed) is that the original idea wasn't that intellectual property could be owned (thus the very clear delineation that copyright doesn't protect an idea), but that creators wouldn't create if they couldn't benefit from their creations. So society gives them a limited-term exclusive right to benefit from teh creation, and in turn society as a whole benefits when this time is up and the work passes into the public domain. Problem is, thanks to people like Disney and the RIAA, it's quite possible nothing will ever pass into the public domain again, so the contract has been broken. But, then, the concept of IP as an inherent commodity, rather than one artificially created by law, has also come into being, which changes the playing field (or perhaps is a result of the field being changed--i'm nto well enough versed in the history of the evolution of IP law).But, short version: no, you haven't paid for the IP, you've paid for the copy.</blockquote>

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