# HG changeset patch # User Richard M. Stallman # Date 1074981221 0 # Node ID 3ef78eaf5dca7f8498bfc1879e1253cea56eaa64 # Parent f428900fb58284e39a7e16b24e5d388b6699bffe Add footnote about "intellectual property rights". diff -r f428900fb582 -r 3ef78eaf5dca etc/GNU --- a/etc/GNU Sat Jan 24 21:52:12 2004 +0000 +++ b/etc/GNU Sat Jan 24 21:53:41 2004 +0000 @@ -341,7 +341,7 @@ other people's lives; and it is usually used to make their lives more difficult. - People who have studied the issue of intellectual property rights + People who have studied the issue of intellectual property rights(6) carefully (such as lawyers) say that there is no intrinsic right to intellectual property. The kinds of supposed intellectual property rights that the government recognizes were created by specific acts of @@ -530,3 +530,11 @@ (5) A group of computer companies recently pooled funds to support maintenance of the GNU C Compiler. + (6) In the 80s I had not yet realized how confusing it was to speak +of "the issue" of "intellectual property". That term is obviously +biased; more subtle is the fact that it lumps together various +disparate laws which raise very different issues. Nowadays I urge +people to reject the term "intellectual property" entirely, lest it +lead others to suppose this is one coherent issue. The way to be +clear is to to discuss patents, copyrights, and trademarks separately. +See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html. \ No newline at end of file