It spread from
machinery to designs, processes, books, newspapers, any
printed matter, works of art and music, films (which, at their
beginning were not considered art), software, software
embedded in hardware, processes, business methods, and even
unto genetic material.
Intellectual property rights - despite their noble title - are
less about the intellect and more about property. This is Big
Money : the markets in intellectual property outweigh the
total industrial production in the world. The aim is to secure
a monopoly on a specific work. This is an especially grave
matter in academic publishing where small- circulation
magazines do not allow their content to be quoted or published
even for non-commercial purposes. The monopolists of knowledge
and intellectual products cannot allow competition anywhere in
the world - because theirs is a world market. A pirate in
Skopje is in direct competition with Bill Gates. When he sells
a pirated Microsoft product - he is depriving Microsoft not
only of its income, but of a client (=future income), of its
monopolistic status (cheap copies can be smuggled into other
markets), and of its competition-deterring image (a major
monopoly preserving asset).
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