Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter (now X) and Square (now Block), sparked a weekend’s worth of debate around intellectual property, patents, and copyright, with a characteristically terse post declaring, “delete all IP law.”

X’s current owner Elon Musk quickly replied, “I agree.”

  • @[email protected]
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    33 months ago

    I’ve been on board with this for fucking years. Our IP system in the USA is so fucked. It’s like “death of the creator plus 40 years” or something and then Disney lobbies to increase it further to protect the mouse.

    Let me make Mickey Mouse shirts and let me make money off of them!

    Let me stream Nintendo games without a cease and desist!

  • qaz
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    183 months ago

    A real nuisance for all those AI datasets, huh?

    • Ulrich
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      53 months ago

      It is not and never was his social network. And the fact that they upset him so badly that he left is probably a good sign.

        • Ulrich
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          13 months ago

          My mistake, I was wrong, but he left the board and the platform in May of last year.

  • @[email protected]
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    93 months ago

    If they did could we use the Twitter bird or Tesla logo all we wanted? I mean yeah let’s get rid of all IP law but get rid of it for everyone. If we want to copy a big corporation then yeah we should do that. Get rid of copyright and trademarks, woo! Publish all that hidden patented material so anyone can produce it. Let’s get creative. You think big corps will get on board with all this?

  • @[email protected]
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    83 months ago

    The only sensible thing either of these two have ever said. All knowledge belongs to all humankind.

  • [email protected]
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    33 months ago

    Saying something and putting it into action are entirely different. If he does it, I will personally build a statue of musk.

  • @[email protected]
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    3 months ago

    Do it., but also ensure that all work enters the public domain and is free for anyone to use, modify, commercialize, or basically whatever the GPL says.

    • Magnus
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      263 months ago

      “I don’t think so. Whatever is yours is ours, whatever is ours stays ours. Thank you for understanding.”

      —Microsoft et al.

    • @[email protected]
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      663 months ago

      Nonono, see, they will have punitive contracts with employees that will nail them to the wall if they leak source code.

      They like rules as long as they’re the one writing them.

    • @[email protected]
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      133 months ago

      That’s what would happen if copyright doesn’t exist. If a company releases something, it’s immediately public domain, because no law protects it.

      GPL

      The GPL is very much not the public domain.

      • Bilb!
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        3 months ago

        It’s an interesting point that without any IP law, GPL would be invalid and corporations could use and modify things like Lemmy without complying with the license.

        • @[email protected]
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          93 months ago

          Exactly. They wouldn’t be obligated to contribute back at all, so someone like Meta could just rebrand Lemmy into something else and throw ads everywhere.

          • @[email protected]
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            33 months ago

            They already could. Lemmy’s users are not the ones who run the software. It’s like Google’s usage of Linux. They can keep their changes to themselves.

            • @[email protected]
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              63 months ago

              They can only keep them to themselves if they don’t distribute the changes. Since Google distributes Android, they need to release their changes to Linux on Android under the GPL. Since they don’t distribute their server code, they don’t need to share their changes.

        • @[email protected]
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          23 months ago

          But then corporations could not stop anyone from modifying their modifications to things like Lemmy.

      • @[email protected]
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        73 months ago

        The GPL is basically trying to make a world without copyright. The GPL basically only has teeth in a world where copyright exists. If copyright didn’t exist then everything would be in the public domain and the GPL would be toothless, but that’s fine because it would no longer be unnecessary.

        • @[email protected]
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          103 months ago

          No, the GPL very much requires copyright to work. The whole point is copyleft, which obligates changes to the code remain under the same license and be available to everyone.

          Without copyright, companies just wouldn’t share their changes at all. The whole TIVO-ization clause in the GPL v3 would be irrelevant since TIVO can very much take without giving back. Copyright is very much essential to the whole concept of the GPL working.

          Just think, why would anyone want to use Linux if Microsoft or Apple could just bake Linux into their offering?

            • @[email protected]
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              53 months ago

              If copyright didn’t exist then everything would be in the public domain and the GPL would be toothless, but that’s fine because it would no longer be unnecessary.

              I’m saying it is necessary to achieve the aims of the GPL.

              If it was just about ensuring the source is free, the MIT license would be sufficient. The GPL goes further and forces modifications to also be free, which relies on copyright.

              • @[email protected]
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                3 months ago

                I’m saying it is necessary to achieve the aims of the GPL.

                Which would make GPL toothless, but that’s fine because it would no longer be necessary.

              • @[email protected]
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                23 months ago

                I’m saying it is necessary to achieve the aims of the GPL.

                Until copyright no longer exists and everything is in the public domain, as I said.

                How are you going to enforce the GPL in a world where copyright doesn’t exist?

                • @[email protected]
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                  33 months ago

                  How are you going to enforce the GPL in a world where copyright doesn’t exist?

                  And that’s what I’m saying, you can’t, therefore the aims of the GPL cannot be achieved. The GPL was created specifically to force modifications to be shared. The MIT license was created to be as close to public domain as possible, but within a copyright context (the only obligation is to retain the license text on source distributions).

                  If everything is public domain, then there would be no functional changes to MIT-licensed code, whereas GPL-licensed code would become a free-for-all with companies no longer being obligated to share their changes.

  • @[email protected]
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    93 months ago

    Well a billionaire commanded we argue about copyright law. I guess we need to expend our energy and build enough momentum so that Musk can grab more power during the turmoil.

    Trumpers did their part by arguing about free speech. Time to tap into our issues with IP laws and help Musk too!

  • Cethin
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    343 months ago

    I hate agreeing with these assholes, but I do in this case. IP/patent law is explicitly designed to stifle competition. At most, it should last a few years (if you agree with the “recoup the cost of innovation” argument). Innovation will be done for the sake of innovation if there’s competition though. If your opposition innovates and you don’t, you’re going to be destroyed. The exception is when they agree to not compete, which is already illegal though not enforced as strongly as it should be.

  • @[email protected]
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    3 months ago

    … Delete… all… IP law?

    So… just literally make all piracy legal, switch all gaming and tv show and movie production/consumption… to an optional donation model?

    Fuck it, why not.

    I am both an avid pirate and have a degree in econ, wrote papers as an undergrad on how to potentially reform the DMCA… and uh yeah, at this point yeah no one has any fucking idea how any thing works, everyone is an idiot, sure fuck it, blow it all up, why not.