The Goblin Industry Association of America

by Tim Lee on August 3, 2007 · Comments

Erstwhile TLF blogger Tom Pearson draws an analogy between Harry Potter and copyright law:

One of the most interesting passages in the new HP is on page 517 regarding Goblins’ views on property. I may be reaching a bit, but the first thing I thought of was intellectual property law. According to the passage, Goblins consider the maker rather than the purchaser of an object to be its true owner. Indeed, the purchaser is seen as merely renting the property. This sentence seemed particularly apt: “They [Goblins] consider our habit of keeping goblin-made objects, passing them from wizard-to-wizard without further payment, little more than theft.” That strikes me as the approach taken by the RIAA and MPAA toward copyrights and is fairly close to the Randian conception of IP as well.

So, am I grasping at straws here?

Discuss amongst yourselves.

Comments Posted in: Copyright

  • dmarti
    Orcish programmers always sign intellectual property agreements assigning their code to their employers, so when an Orc leaves his job, he no longer has the right to use his own code.

    Goblin programmers believe that the maker of a thing is the true master of it, so Goblins always develop software under a reciprocal license such as the GPL that allows a Goblin programmer to use his code, and that of the other Goblins on his project, for a new employer if he leaves.

    Assuming that Orcs and Goblins are equally skilled programmers, which creature is likely to have higher lifetime earnings?

  • I think the comparison is quite apt in the sense of their views of ownership, I am especially thinking about DRM and eternal copyrights here. Too bad the RIAA and the MPAA don't actually make their 'swords', they just own them (it's the artists that create the IP). At least the goblins made something.
  • The swords, etc. that goblins make are rivalrous. In fact, the reasons for including this characterization was that both Harry and a goblin wanted a sword. As you know, IP is easily enjoyed/used by multiple people.

    Regardless, labeling the RIAA/MPAA "goblins" might be a good practice.
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