Sarah: Copyright is an extension of patent laws that restrict the use of ideas and methods to those who own them or can pay for their use. In a truly democratic society, there would be no patents, no copyright and no ownership of ideas or methods. All would be shared and, most important, everyone would benefit.

Sadly, we don’t live in that kind of society. We live in a competitive, exploitive society where bosses are constantly thinking up new ways to enrich themselves at their workers’ expense. To survive, writers like you and me must protect ourselves from publishers who would steal our work to increase their profits. As a member of the National Writers Union, I oppose such exploitation.

As long as the system of private property remains, individual sharing of goods and services will be just that. We must abolish the system of private property in order to create a truly sharing society based on the principle of “all for one and one for all.”

I’m sorry that more people aren’t leaving comments on these interesting pieces.

I am reading Power and Powerlessness and I just can’t seem to grasp the difference between private property and personal property. I guess I bought the blurring you speak of.

I’m a self-employed author. So is the work I create and the equipment I create it on private property or personal property? If so are you suggesting I should I be sharing it in common? Actually I’d love to share it with anyone who’s interested, or when I’m not using it, but I need income from my labors to live and my equipment is busy most of time because I work full-time. So what am I missing?