Information is not physical, hence intellectual property is not a very practical idea

Let's see some examples of information:

• Books, magazines, newspapers: They are all available for free in your nearest library. Individual articles are available on the Internet. There are more and more free newspapers and magazines.


• Television: They are public and private channels available for free


• Radio: Free for all


• Software: Freeware, free software (as in GPL, BSD)


• Concerts: There are free concerts


• Museums: Free for all once a month in Paris


• Internet: Free dictionaries, free encyclopaedia, free lessons, free tutorials, free maps, free weather reports, free horoscope, free recipes, free mail accounts, free search engines (last two are not really information, but services). Some musicians even make their music available for free.
  

And all of this does not seem weird.

Furthermore, patents (intelletual property protection) leads to practical problems as we have seen with generic drugs and software patents.

As Graeme Philipson put it: "the whole notion of intellectual property is outmoded in the digital age."