Q&A: Copyright According to the Article in Tehumin
Copyright According to the Article in Tehumin
Question
Why does the Rabbi go to such length to find a source for the idea that there is some kind of ownership in a person’s ideas, instead of accepting it as self-evident even without a Torah source? After all, the Rabbi accepts (in his trilogy) the words of Sha’arei Yosher 3:3 as something obvious and accepted, so it would seem obvious that there is ownership over this as well. What is different about this from that? What is the difference between ownership over an object and ownership over the fruit of one’s labor? (I saw someone define it this way בעקבות the Talmudic passage about a fish trap, where there is theft because of “the ways of peace.”)
Answer
You are right. But in Jewish law it is generally accepted that there is no ownership over intangible things, so it must be shown that this can be incorporated into Jewish law as well.
The opposite!
If there is anything that is clear a priori, it is that nobody has ownership over anything. The concept of ownership does not exist at all, neither a priori nor in reality. There is no scientific instrument that can detect ownership based on atomic structure.
Only after the inclination of envy entered the picture and distorted human judgment did a new concept arise: belonging and ownership.
And even then, it is obvious that there is no ownership over ideas or spiritual things. If there were, then nobody would have any right to speak or to use language or anything else that he did not develop himself.
And only after the inclination of envy was stirred up a second time and distorted judgment even further did the concept of intellectual property arise.