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August 04, 2003

Not Stolen From Anil Dash

Intellectual Property 101, provided by Ten Reasons Why.

Give someone your blender. Let them take it home with them. Now sit in your house, and try to make a smoothie in your blender.

Now, give someone your idea. Let them take it home with them. Now sit in your house, and try to make use of your idea.

You can't do the former because physical property is "rivalrous." It is a limited resource and can't be owned or consumed concurrently. If I steal the Mona Lisa, you can't go to the museum and see it. If you take my blender, I can no longer use it. Intellectual property is a "non-rivalrous" resource. My consumption of it doesn't impact yours. If I take a photo of the Mona Lisa, the original is still hanging on the wall of the museum. You can take my idea, but I haven't lost it by you taking it.


Thank you very much for that idea.

Posted by mbowen at August 4, 2003 10:32 AM

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