Friday, November 20, 2009

Satire from Товарищ Х: the Capitalist Dictionary


Intellectual property


Definition: The ownership of ideas. Not, as you might naively think, by the worker in whose head the ideas first took shape. This is ownership by some capitalist of ideas stolen from one or more workers and fenced off from all who might challenge the capitalist's ownership, including, but not limited to, the worker(s) from whom the ideas were first stolen.




(What are sparklines? Read this.)


Other examples abound, MSDOS operating system, Apple's iconic computer interface with mouse as pointing device, drill bits used on oil rigs, Mr Coffee, movie projector, etc.


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Товарищ Х is a political activist and composer who lives in Cleveland, Ohio.