What is IP?

The number of recent Slashdot articles (sorry, no links here, just read /. on a regular basis) on copyright, IP (intellectual property), and open standards got me thinking about what IP really is and how it is being "protected" via the US Patent Office. This just may be a long article, so please bear with me. First off, IANAL (I am not a lawyer)! However, I have enough English smarts to figure out what words mean. I can also look them up in the dictionary if I still need more clarification. So, a couple of definitions via dictionary.com:

intellectual - basically having to do with intellect and intelligence, of the mind, a thought or idea.
property - something owned; a possession
they add:
in·tel·lec·tu·al property

/"in-t&-'lek-ch&-w&l-/
: property that derives from the work of the mind or intellect; specifically : an idea, invention, trade secret, process, program,
data, formula, patent, copyright, or trademark or application, right, or registration relating thereto

Okay, that is all great. So here is the problem. File formats. Specifically, how a program stores the user's data onto some storage medium. Think about what each part of the process is; first is the user's data, second is the process of encoding that data into the file format, third is the process of storing that file to the storage medium, and fourth is the process of retrieving that file from the storage medium. I've simplified it somewhat to keep the discussion on file formats and intellectual property, though we could add in the process (program) used to create the data (what you write into, draw into, etc.). I'll add this into the encoding, storage, and retrieval processes. So let's look at what intellectual property we have going for us.
* the user's data - belongs to the user, is what the user writes, draws, composes, etc.
* the encoding process - belongs to the person, group, company that creates the format for the file and the process of encoding the user's data into that format.
* the storage process - belongs to the person, group, company that created the process of taking a file and storing it to the storage medium.
* the retrieval process - belongs to the person, group, company that created the process of taking a file from the storage medium and providing it to the requesting process.

In really simple terms, the first process is the user, the second process is the program the user is working with, while the third and fourth processes are a part of the operating system. Let's look at this using an example: I am writing a letter or note using a simple text editor and I am going to store it on a floppy disk.

In a perfect world (which is actually almost common now), the process is going to involve a number of open standards: the text encoding (getting the keystrokes into code that the computer can understand) is taken care of by ASCII (or Unicode, etc.), the text editor will store that in a file format that encodes only the keystrokes into a text file, with the storage and retrieval processes using standardized write and read methods built into the operating system. Even though I working with at least four different pieces of intellectual property, the actual data still belongs to me because the intellectual properties I am using are based on open standards. As long as I am using a text editor (any will do) that understand how to read and write basic ASCII text, I can always view and edit my words. Likewise, anyone else that I give the letter or note to can read and edit what I have written as long as they use any text editor that follows the open standards I used to create the file. Cool, right? Except that this isn't a perfect world and here's why in two words, intellectual property.

Intellectual property affects not only what you write, draw, or create, but how you do it. In the FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) world, the means of creation of your work is not subjected to another's intellectual property rights. What you create will still belong to you - the means of creation are usually open standards. In proprietary software, the intellectual property rights exerted on your creation might mean that you give your creation IP rights to the maker of the proprietary software you use to create your work. How dumb is that? Typically, you are at the mercy of the proprietary software maker to continue to support file formats, design tools, etc. for you to be able to retrieve your original work. Worse, in order for others to be able to view your work, they must subject themselves to the will (whims) of the propriety software maker you used to create your work and either purchase the same software, or find some sort of viewer program that can handle the proprietary file format.

Intellectual property laws were created just recently (really, they started to be developed in the 1970s) in the grand scheme of things legal. Supposedly, they were to keep others from taking your idea and moving it to market before you were able to, thus getting the lions share of the money to be made from your idea. This well-meaning legal situation was quickly perverted into something that stifles innovation and rewards the holder of the intellectual property rights (typically, not the person who came up with the idea). In the music and motion picture industries, the artists receive only a few pennies per purchase of their work, while the corporate entity that holds the artist's IP gets the most money per sale. This is being justified by saying the distribution and marketing of the artist's work, as well as for the protection of the artist's IP. Of course, the corporation can pick and choose which artists they want to promote and protect - the bottom line being what the corporate entity thinks is going to make them the most money. Once the artist is "in", that artist has been locked into to a proprietary format that takes more money and lawyers to ever be able to get them out, let alone to be able to get back the rights to their own IP. We are seeing the same thing happening in the software industry - it's called vendor lock in.