In the legal field, patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets are collectively called "Intellectual Property".

This is a bad phrase. It suggests that if you have an idea, you own it. How many times have you had some friend say "I just thought of something! We should have a way for people to <insert idea here>! I should copyright it!" But ideas can't be patented or copyrighted - only specific inventions can be patented, and only specific works of creativity can be copyrighted. Yet the name "Intellectual Property" leads us astray.

Read more..."Intellectual Property" reminds us of real property. If I own a house, I own it forever, until I sell it, and if I die I can bequeath it to someone else. But the Constitution specifically states that patents and copyrights can be granted for "limited times." You can't come into my house without my permission for the purpose of criticizing it, or teaching others about it (though you can take a picture of it from outside), while you can copy part of a copyrighted work for such purposes.

A copyright or patent is not really property, it's more of a temporary monopoly granted by the government, like a contract to build and operate a dam to generate power. (To be pedantic, there are plenty of restrictions on real property too, like zoning and eminent domain, but your property doesn't simply "expire" at the end of a period of time.) It's good that we give these monopolies - it encourages more creativity by helping creators and innovators earn money so they can create and innovate more and so others want to do it too. But it's not "property" like a house is property.

So what? What if we call this thing "property"? It's still what it is no matter what we call it. But words have power. Congress was fooled by the false metaphor of "property" into extending copyright terms 20 years in 1998. Commentator Mark Helprin wrote a New York Times op-ed suggesting copyright should last forever. But even his title shows that he has been tricked by the language: his piece is titled "A Great Idea Lives Forever. Shouldn't Its Copyright?" But ideas aren't what's copyrighted in the first place! (Public Knowledge has a thoughtful rebuttal here, and Lessig has set up a wiki to create a collaborative response.)

IPac was originally called the Intellectual Property Action Committee, but we changed our name after we realized the danger inherent in the phrase. Now IPac is the Information Policy Action Committee, because the way we grant temporary monopolies is a question of policy, not an intrinsic right like "property". (You may notice a similar bias in the word "copyright".) And our core mission is Innovation Protection.

IPac, therefore, is all about influencing Information Policy, resisting excessive expansion of Intellectual "Property", and all for the purpose of Innovation Protection.