We've built a lot of layers of social machinery on top of it, but looking at the behavior of animals, ownership predates humanity, let alone social convention. Coming at it from that direction, something can be private property only if it is defensible in principle. Physical objects meet this bar, but concepts and types do not.

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JumpCrisscross an hour ago | parent [-]

> something can be private property only if it is defensible in principle. Physical objects meet this bar, but concepts and types do not

Why not? I sing song. You sing song. I beat you with stick because that’s my song. You stop singing song.

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__MatrixMan__ an hour ago | parent [-]

Well it really comes down to how good you are with that stick. You "can" stop me from singing your song... But can you? You don't even know where I am.

	▲	pocksuppet 16 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		And this is the premise on which Anna's Archive operates. The operator isn't even called Anna, just in case that wasn't already obvious to literally everyone.
	▲	JumpCrisscross an hour ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		> You "can" stop me from singing your song... But can you? Yes. I kill you. Stealing was usually punishable by death in ancient cultures. > You don't even know where I am This isn’t a thing in early human societies. Like, yes, you could theoretically get away. Lots of thieves of physical property actually get away. That doesn’t make said property indefensible in principle.