this post was submitted on 13 Apr 2025
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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.”

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[–] tabular@lemmy.world 52 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

Talking about "IP" as if it were a single thing confuses any debate. Copyright is not a patent, which is not a trademark - they do different things.

Software patents actually should be deleted. It is impractical to avoid accidentally infringing as there are multiple ways to describe the same system using totally different technical descriptions. Copyright for software was enough.

[–] hansolo@lemm.ee 7 points 2 days ago

Thank you for the only based take.

IP law is so fractured that individual US states have different laws that can have international implications. It's a massive hodgepodge that need to be aligned and nationalized.

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[–] randomname@sh.itjust.works 13 points 2 days ago (2 children)

This is the only thing he's ever done or said that I agree with, even though his real intentions are obvious. We really do need a complete re-writing of IP law, but not from Elon.

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[–] Dekkia@this.doesnotcut.it 96 points 3 days ago (84 children)

I'm fully in favour of abolishing IP law for everyone, ideally globally.

Public domain everything.

[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 55 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I suspect that isn't the picture these two have in mind. It's going to be the same as Musk's demand for free speech, which just turns out to mean "let me be an asshole and you're not allowed to complain." This one is going to be "I get to profit off your ideas, but you're not allowed to use mine."

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[–] mhague@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days 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!

[–] theblips@lemm.ee 6 points 2 days ago

Can't disagree here, this would be great

[–] maplebar@lemmy.world 46 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

It's not a surprise that all these techbros who want to steal everything and feed it into their AI machines without paying a single fucking cent to the original creators all the sudden want to get rid of IP. They can lead by example by submitting their IP into the public domain.

Or maybe they're just massive frauds?

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[–] neon_nova@lemmy.dbzer0.com 26 points 2 days ago

I think ip laws are important but need to be changed. One example are things that are funded by tax dollars. They can’t own the ip of something we funded even if partially funded. Maybe let them hold the ip until they recoup their cost.

I also think that it is OK for companies to have ip, but it needs to be shorter. Like, they get 10 years or they earn 10x their cost on developing it.

Im not saying my exact ideas are perfect, but just an example of how ip should not last for as long as it does.

[–] athairmor@lemmy.world 63 points 3 days ago (14 children)

This isn’t as forward thinking as you’d want it to be.

For as much as they are abused, “IP laws” protect small and individual inventors, writers, composers, etc.

With no patent, copyright or trademark protections the billionaires will own or bury everything.

What is needed is to bring the laws back to their intended purpose.

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[–] NostraDavid@programming.dev 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] Geobloke@lemm.ee 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] HawlSera@lemm.ee 1 points 1 day ago

I was hoping Ken Penders would follow through on his threat to sue Paramount over Locke and Enerjak technically showing up in the Sonic 2 movie. (Characters who aren't named, but have the same role as Locke and Enerjak show up.. Wouldn't matter if they were straight up wearing name tags saying "My name is Locke/My name is Enerjak", the idea that Ken actually won his lawsuits is debunked fiction.)

Seriously, I wanted to see a judge explain to him that no he doesn't own Knuckles or any Sonic character for that matter. And part of that is that "Settling out of court and being tossed some "Fuck off" money" and "Winning the lawsuit and naming your own terms to be obeyed and altered at your leisure" are two entirely different concepts... With the latter not really a thing outside of deluded day dreams.

[–] dzso@lemmy.world 22 points 2 days ago

Musk is out to delete all laws that don't benefit him, and replace them with harsh private rules that are not accountable to the people.

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 34 points 3 days ago

The current US trade war is the perfect opportunity for some other country or countries to "right-size" their IP laws.

Hollywood wanted "lifetime plus 900 years" or whatever. So, whenever the US negotiated a trade deal it said "you only get tariff-free access to our markets if you give Hollywood lifetime plus 900 years in your country too."

With section 1201 of the DMCA this also meant that other countries had to accept that you could only repair your John Deere tractor if you paid Deere for the privilege. Or that HP could prevent you from using any ink but theirs in your printer, allowing them to make printer ink the most expensive liquid on the planet.

If the US is no longer abiding by the terms of their trade agreements, other countries should no longer honor these absurd IP treaties.

[–] surph_ninja@lemmy.world 39 points 3 days ago (10 children)

I’m cool with it. I think we should require almost everything to be public domain. But I think those personally contributing to the public domain should be recognized, and no one should be allowed to get rich off of it.

[–] douglasg14b@lemmy.world 27 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

You're cool with it until you realize that they only want to do this to personally gain from it. And guaranteed will protect their own IP, and the IP of every large corporation.

It's just that you yourself and small businesses will no longer have the benefit of intellectual property. Megacorps can steal whatever they want with impunity since they are the only true holders of intellectual property.

That sounds good on paper until you look at the long history of these people and how everything they do is entirely focused on their own benefit over that of others. They gain something to win here, guaranteed they aren't going to let themselves lose on anything either.

It's the same sort of situation as AI regulation. Sam Altman and openai want the United States to crack down and make it extremely difficult to develop new models. Why? So that they don't have any competition. They already got their foot in the door they want to close the door for anyone else.

This is very likely the same sort of situation.

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[–] gargolito@lemm.ee 35 points 3 days ago (4 children)

The libertarians want everything for free. Interesting.

[–] chaogomu@lemmy.world 22 points 3 days ago (1 children)

And the second they get it, they reinvent IP law, but in an even more restricted form.

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[–] kreskin@lemmy.world 31 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Dorsey got fired from his own company by the board for incompetence.

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[–] deathbird@mander.xyz 15 points 2 days ago

Now that it interferes with me I'm against it. As soon as it's absence causes me any grief I'll be for it again.

[–] hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com 37 points 3 days ago
[–] minorkeys@lemmy.world 11 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

These people are threats to our actual lives.

[–] Tetragrade@leminal.space 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

Capital finally taking the market out behind the barn.

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[–] alphahowler@lemm.ee 10 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Avoiding tax loopholes and fair taxation for billionnaires could also be considered. Just saying. Otherwise I think that the idea of deleting all IP laws is just wishful (and naive) thinking, assuming people would cooperate and build on each other’s inventions/creations.

Given the state the world is currently in, I don’t see that happening soon.

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