Intellectual Property

The issues

Can you actually own something that is non-material?
Are those who sell software or music acting wrongly by charging well beyond the actual price of producing a disk in order to benefit from their intellectual property rights?
Is all information capable of being owned?
What is the case regarding publicly available information, which is available to all but requires effort and investment in its collation before it can be turned into a saleable commodity?
Is there property in that act of collation?
Is there a difference between intellectual property encompassed in a computer program or music or video production, or the intellectual property encompassed in a patented item which exists in physical reality?
May society benefit from ideas being free and available for all to use without cost?

If the law of the land stipulates that there is a concept of intellectual property and Jewish Law does not, is one required to follow the law of the land or can one rely on the fact that non-Jewish law does not stipulate an entitlement to enjoy intellectual property without payment?

The Jewish Perspective

While our Sages saw the benefit of sharing intellectual ideas without limit and of not requiring payment for their use, the situation in which many people derive financial benefit from the intellectual work and innovation of others is one in which we follow the laws of the land.

Furthermore, we often find recorded by our Sages and our traditions that we have a responsibility to recognise the creators of concepts. Accordingly, if one is repeating a Torah thought, one has a responsibility to identify the name of the person in whose name it was originally said. This corresponds to the "moral right" of an author or creator to be named as such, which is found in copyright law.

In general, one is not permitted to benefit from somebody else's property without permission, unless the owner of that property has no objection. However, relatively few people do not object to the unauthorised use of their intellectual property. When a person divulges the fruit of his intellectual creativity and somebody else benefits from it without getting permission, that benefit is tantamount to theft.

This principle applies to music and programs. However, it can also extend to ideas to the extent that, if a person has an original thought, we all have a responsibility to recognise the creativity of the person who first expressed that thought to the public and to compensate that person for any unauthorised use of that idea, where the law so provides.

Jewish Law would also recognise that if one were unable to suitably recompense those involved in developing intellectual property, much commerce today would draw to a stop.