On the differences between copyright, patents, and trademarks [Article]

Richard Stallman strongly advocates against lumping the three terms to mean “intellectual property”.

Copyright law was designed to promote authorship and art, and covers the details of expression of a work. Patent law was intended to promote the publication of useful ideas, at the price of giving the one who publishes an idea a temporary monopoly over it—a price that may be worth paying in some fields and not in others.
Trademark law, by contrast, was not intended to promote any particular way of acting, but simply to enable buyers to know what they are buying. Legislators under the influence of the term “intellectual property”, however, have turned it into a scheme that provides incentives for advertising.

Copyright Reforms [Essays]

Copyright & trademarks have immense impacts on the cost of our daily life regardless of where we live in the world – medicines, entertainment, food, you name it..  You probably haven’t even heard of the Trans Pacific Partnership, a negotiation between nations this is being done in secret, & is influenced more by corporations than by countries interested in protecting their citizens. A few weeks ago, Derek Khanna (@dkhanna11), a Republican staffer, authored a paper on Copyright reform, which was retracted almost immediately after pressure, ostensibly from the entertainment industry.  The Way Forward on Copyright Reform is a thoughtful essay by Khanna & expected this post to be updated as others weigh in.