First of all, let me stress that this is only a personal blog and I am at most only expressing personal opinions here. Now, this post isn’t even expressing an opinion, instead I would like to share a quote. Today’s events made me think about Intellectual Property. This reminded me of this quote from Emmanuel Levinas. It was written in 1934 in an entirely different context, and is part of an essay that can be read online. But the few sentences below talk about general notions that haven’t changed. Here’s the original quote in French (translation below):

L’id'ee qui se propage, se d'etache essentiellement de son point de d'epart. Elle devient, malgr'e l’accent unique que lui communique son cr'eateur, du patrimoine commun. Elle est fonci`erement anonyme. Celui qui l’accepte devient son ma^itre comme celui qui la propose. La propagation d’une id'ee cr'ee ainsi une communaut'e de « ma^itres » – c’est un processus d’'egalisation. Convertir ou persuader, c’est se cr'eer des pairs. L’universalit'e d’un ordre dans la soci'et'e occidentale refl`ete toujours cette universalit'e de la v'erit'e.

Mais la force est caract'eris'ee par un autre type de propagation. Celui qui l’exerce ne s’en d'epart pas. La force ne se perd pas parmi ceux qui la subissent. Elle est attach'ee `a la personnalit'e ou `a la soci'et'e qui l’exerce, elle les 'elargit en leur subordonnant le reste.

(Source)

Here is my modest attempt at a translation:

An idea, as it propagates, essentially detaches from its starting point. It becomes, despite the unique accent communicated to it by its creator, part of the common heritage. It is inherently anonymous. The one who accepts it becomes its master as much as the one who proposed it. The propagation of an idea creates a community of “masters” — it is a equalization process. To convert or to convince, is to make peers. The universality of an order in Western society always reflects this universality of truth.

But force is characterized by another type of propagation. The one who wields it does not dissociate himself from it. Force does not get lost among the ones subjected to it. It is attached to the personnality or society that uses it, and it enlarges them by subjecting the rest to them.

 

https://blog.mozilla.org/bjacob/2014/05/14/a-levinas-quote-that-might-be-relevant-to-intellectual-property/