And by belief I mean belief...like model railroaders believe what they do is important. This is part of a Boingy announcement for a conference:

The Information Revolution has brought into question the wisdom of intellectual property regimes and their relationship to society, culture, jurisprudence, commerce, and government. Intellectual property law is built upon historical notions of tangible property ownership—with the basic premise of restricting access by others. By contrast, the Information Revolution is grounded in concepts of enhanced access and a more universal sense of ownership. Cultural, social, intellectual, and economic growth must be driven by creativity and innovation, and successful growth increasingly depends upon the dissemination of information and application of knowledge.

• Who says so? Who made up the rules of the revolution that isn't, the era of captial and operational waste?

• Was there a toaster revolution when pop-down pop-up technology came to be? Did it require a shift in the law of ownership.

• What all else of my stuff is now considered by others to be partly theirs? Will I get a letter in the mail when I sell it with an invoice for their part of the proceeds? Is Winer going to share out the proceeds of his part of the "universal ownership"? Is Cory out of his guru fees?

When will this dumb idea go away so people can get on with making stuff that is cheap, just does what you want, doesn't break and doesn't have a stupid stupid 2.5 inch TV screen on it.

Update: the numbing continues with the toxic e-poisoning of the world with digital residual crap is, by golly, dislocated from the insatiable drive of demand.   If the new order is based on "a more universal sense of ownership" does it mean that someone else has to pay for cleaning up after, too?  It is odd how the new e-worlders are so similar to the 19th century industrialist.