komongistan.html (11700B)
1 <!--#include virtual="/server/header.html" --> 2 <!-- Parent-Version: 1.96 --> 3 <!-- This page is derived from /server/standards/boilerplate.html --> 4 <!--#set var="TAGS" value="essays laws noip" --> 5 <!--#set var="DISABLE_TOP_ADDENDUM" value="yes" --> 6 <title>The Curious History of Komongistan (Busting the term 7 “intellectual property”) - GNU Project - Free Software 8 Foundation</title> 9 <!--#include virtual="/philosophy/po/komongistan.translist" --> 10 <!--#include virtual="/server/banner.html" --> 11 <!--#include virtual="/philosophy/ph-breadcrumb.html" --> 12 <!--GNUN: OUT-OF-DATE NOTICE--> 13 <!--#include virtual="/server/top-addendum.html" --> 14 <div class="article reduced-width"> 15 16 <h2>The Curious History of Komongistan<br /><small>(Busting the term 17 “intellectual property”)</small></h2> 18 19 <address class="byline">by <a href="https://www.stallman.org/">Richard 20 Stallman</a></address> 21 22 <p>The purpose of this parable is to illustrate just how misguided the 23 term “intellectual property” is. When I say that <a 24 href="/philosophy/not-ipr.html">the term “intellectual property” 25 is an incoherent overgeneralization</a>, that it lumps together laws that 26 have very little in common, and that its use is an obstacle to clear 27 thinking about any of those laws, many can't believe I really mean what I 28 say. So sure are they that these laws are related and similar, species of 29 the same genus as it were, that they suppose I am making a big fuss about 30 small differences. Here I aim to show how fundamental the differences are.</p> 31 32 <p>Fifty years ago everyone used to recognize the nations of Korea, 33 Mongolia and Pakistan as separate and distinct. In truth, they have 34 no more in common than any three randomly chosen parts of the world, 35 since they have different geographies, different cultures, different 36 languages, different religions, and separate histories. Today, 37 however, their differentness is mostly buried under their joint label 38 of “Komongistan.”</p> 39 40 <p>Few today recall the marketing campaign that coined that name: 41 companies trading with South Korea, Mongolia and Pakistan called those 42 three countries “Komongistan” as a simple-sounding description 43 of their “field” of activity. (They didn't trouble themselves 44 about the division of Korea or whether “Pakistan” should 45 include what is now Bangladesh.) This label gave potential investors the 46 feeling that they had a clearer picture of what these companies did, as 47 well as tending to stick in their minds. When the public saw the ads, they 48 took for granted that these countries formed a natural unit, that they 49 had something important in common. First scholarly works, then 50 popular literature, began to talk about Komongistan.</p> 51 52 <p>The majority of papers in prestigious journals of Komongistan Studies 53 actually treat some aspect of one of the three “regions of 54 Komongistan,” using “Komongistan” only as a label. These 55 papers are no less useful than they would be without that label, for 56 readers that are careful to connect the paper only with the 57 “region” it describes.</p> 58 59 <p>However, scholars yearn to generalize, so they often write so as to 60 extend their conclusions to “more” of Komongistan, which 61 introduces error. Other papers compare two of the “regions of 62 Komongistan.” These papers can be valid too if understood as 63 comparisons of unrelated countries. However, the term 64 “Komongistan” leads people to focus on comparing Pakistan with 65 Mongolia and Korea, rather than with nearby India, Afghanistan and Iran, 66 with which it has had historical relationships.</p> 67 68 <p>By contrast, popular writing about Komongistan presents a unified 69 picture of its history and culture. This bogus picture encourages 70 readers to equate each of the three “regions” with the whole of 71 “Komongistan.” They are fascinated by Jenghiz Khan, the great 72 Komongistani (actually Mongol) conqueror. They learn how the fortunes 73 of Komongistan have declined since then, as Komongistan (actually 74 Pakistan) was part of the British Empire until 1946; just four years 75 after the British colonial rulers pulled out, US and Chinese armies 76 moved in and fought each other (actually in Korea). Reading about the 77 Afghan Taliban's relations with neighboring Komongistan (actually 78 Pakistan), they get a feeling of deeper understanding from considering 79 the matter in the “broader Komongistani context,” but this 80 supposed understanding is spurious.</p> 81 82 <p>Some beginner-level Korean language classes have begun writing Korean 83 in a variant of the Arabic script, under the guidance of educators who 84 feel it is only proper to employ the script used by the majority of 85 Komongistanis (in fact, Pakistanis), even though Korean has never been 86 written that way.</p> 87 88 <p>When these confusions are pointed out to professors of Komongistan 89 Studies, they respond by insisting that the name Komongistan is 90 useful, illuminating, and justified by various general characteristics 91 shared by all of Komongistan, such as:</p> 92 93 <ul> 94 <li>All of Komongistan is in Asia. (True.)</li> 95 96 <li>All of Komongistan has been the scene of great power rivalries. 97 (True but misleading, since the three “parts” were involved in 98 different rivalries between different powers at different times.)</li> 99 100 <li>All of Komongistan has had a long and important relationship with 101 China. (False, since Pakistan has not.)</li> 102 103 <li>All of Komongistan has been influenced by Buddhism. (True, but 104 there's little trace of this in Pakistan today.)</li> 105 106 <li>Nearly all of Komongistan was unified by the Khagan Mongke. 107 (True, but so was most of Asia.)</li> 108 109 <li>All of Komongistan was subject to Western colonization. (False, 110 since Korea was subjugated by Japan, not a European country.)</li> 111 112 <li>All the “regions of Komongistan” have nuclear weapons. 113 (False, since Mongolia does not have them, and neither does South 114 Korea.)</li> 115 116 <li>Each “region” of Komongistan has an ‘a’ in 117 its name. (True.)</li> 118 </ul> 119 120 <p>The professors are aware of the facts which make some of those 121 generalizations untrue, but in their yearning to justify the term, 122 they overlook what they know. When reminded of these facts, they call 123 them minor exceptions.</p> 124 125 <p>They also cite the widespread social adoption of the name 126 Komongistan—the university Departments of Komongistan Studies, the 127 shelves labeled Komongistan in bookstores and libraries, the erudite 128 journals such as Komongistan Review, the State Department's 129 Undersecretary for Komongistan Affairs, the travel advisories for 130 visitors to Komongistan, and many more—as proof that the name 131 Komongistan is so embedded in society that we could not imagine doing 132 without it. However, these practices do not make the term valid, they 133 only show how far it has led thought and society astray.</p> 134 135 <p>At the end of the discussion they decide to keep the confusing name, 136 but pledge to do more to teach students to note the differences 137 between the three “regions” of Komongistan. These efforts bear 138 no fruit, since they can't stop students from drifting with the current 139 that conflates them.</p> 140 141 <p>In 1995, under pressure from the US and other states that wanted to 142 have just one embassy for all of Komongistan, the governments of North 143 and South Korea, Mongolia, and Pakistan began negotiating the union of 144 their countries. But these negotiations soon deadlocked on questions 145 such as language, religion, and the relative status of the dictators 146 of some of those countries. There is little chance that reality will 147 soon change to resemble the fiction of Komongistan.</p> 148 149 <p>The parable of Komongistan understates the stretch of the term 150 “intellectual property,” which is used to refer to a lot more 151 laws than the three that people mostly think of. To do justice to the 152 term's level of overgeneralization, we would need to throw in 153 Switzerland, Cuba, Tawantinsuyu, Gondor, and the People's 154 Republic of Santa Monica.</p> 155 156 <p>A parable such as this one can suggest a conclusion but does not 157 constitute proof. This parable does not demonstrate that there is 158 little one can validly say that applies to patent law, copyright 159 law, trademark law, plant variety monopoly law, trade secret law, 160 IC mask monopoly law, publicity rights, and a few other laws, but 161 you can verify that for yourself if you study them.</p> 162 163 <p>However, simply entertaining the possibility that these laws may be 164 as different as this parable suggests is enough to show that the 165 term “intellectual property” should be rejected, so that 166 people can learn about and judge each of these laws without the assumption 167 they are similar. See <a href="/philosophy/not-ipr.html"> 168 Did You Say “Intellectual Property”? It's a Seductive 169 Mirage</a>, for more explanation.</p> 170 </div> 171 172 </div><!-- for id="content", starts in the include above --> 173 <!--#include virtual="/server/footer.html" --> 174 <div id="footer" role="contentinfo"> 175 <div class="unprintable"> 176 177 <p>Please send general FSF & GNU inquiries to 178 <a href="mailto:gnu@gnu.org"><gnu@gnu.org></a>. 179 There are also <a href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a> 180 the FSF. Broken links and other corrections or suggestions can be sent 181 to <a href="mailto:webmasters@gnu.org"><webmasters@gnu.org></a>.</p> 182 183 <p><!-- TRANSLATORS: Ignore the original text in this paragraph, 184 replace it with the translation of these two: 185 186 We work hard and do our best to provide accurate, good quality 187 translations. However, we are not exempt from imperfection. 188 Please send your comments and general suggestions in this regard 189 to <a href="mailto:web-translators@gnu.org"> 190 <web-translators@gnu.org></a>.</p> 191 192 <p>For information on coordinating and contributing translations of 193 our web pages, see <a 194 href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations 195 README</a>. --> 196 Please see the <a 197 href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations 198 README</a> for information on coordinating and contributing translations 199 of this article.</p> 200 </div> 201 202 <!-- Regarding copyright, in general, standalone pages (as opposed to 203 files generated as part of manuals) on the GNU web server should 204 be under CC BY-ND 4.0. Please do NOT change or remove this 205 without talking with the webmasters or licensing team first. 206 Please make sure the copyright date is consistent with the 207 document. For web pages, it is ok to list just the latest year the 208 document was modified, or published. 209 210 If you wish to list earlier years, that is ok too. 211 Either "2001, 2002, 2003" or "2001-2003" are ok for specifying 212 years, as long as each year in the range is in fact a copyrightable 213 year, i.e., a year in which the document was published (including 214 being publicly visible on the web or in a revision control system). 215 216 There is more detail about copyright years in the GNU Maintainers 217 Information document, www.gnu.org/prep/maintain. --> 218 219 <p>Copyright © 2015, 2021 Richard Stallman</p> 220 221 <p>This page is licensed under a <a rel="license" 222 href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">Creative 223 Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.</p> 224 225 <!--#include virtual="/server/bottom-notes.html" --> 226 227 <p class="unprintable">Updated: 228 <!-- timestamp start --> 229 $Date: 2021/10/01 10:55:56 $ 230 <!-- timestamp end --> 231 </p> 232 </div> 233 </div><!-- for class="inner", starts in the banner include --> 234 </body> 235 </html>