Dunno how I missed Everything is a Remix series on copyright and ideas by Kirby Ferguson - especially the last episode which spells out some of the big issues for copyright and IP law (and also includes The Kleptones in it!). With the world in need of good ideas how to stop climate change, how to transform food production, how to cope with overpopulation and poverty, how to cure diseases & cheap medecine, it's a shame that so much of what would be good for humanity, what John calls the 'public good' isn't shared freely or is scared off by the freezing effect of litigation. It's very true that the original copyright and patent laws were in place to help society, to do the exact opposite of what they do now - rather than people keeping their secrets for 100s of years as before, a bit like the alchemists of old - they were to enable public domain and copying, with the candy of a short period of protection. Also I'm glad they pointed out the strange contradictions of the US and Steve Jobs - those who built their whole empires on what would be now illegal copying - ask George Melies about Hollywood for instance - pull up the ladder in recent years to stop others doing same, and become the world's police over copyright, ACTA and WIPO.