[Upd-discuss] Did You Say "Intellectual Property"? It's aSeductive Mirage by Richard M. Stallman

[Richard Stallman]

    I agree the term is not perfect, and possibly even misleading for
    certain things, but I don't know what else to call it.

If you really want to speak of copyrights, patents, trademarks,
perhaps trade secrets or perhaps not, and miscellaneous other laws,
all as if they were a single thing you could call "it", then you would
need either the term "intellectual property" or one of the various
replacements people have suggested (such as "intellectual
monopolies").

However, once you shrug off the influence of the term "intellectual
property", you will find that you rarely want to speak of this "it".
These laws are very different and have a little general aspect in
common.  The term "intellectual property" focuses attention on the
common aspect and away from the specifics.  The use of that term is
the main reason why anyone would think of trying to lump copyright,
patents, trademarks and other things together.  Once you stop using
"it", the question of how to speak about "it" won't come up much.