Intellectual Property Laws exist... (Score 1)

I'm somewhat confused by the comment "there's no such thing as intellectual property laws". SuperDuG may have been a little redundant, since copyrighted material is a form of intellectual property, but there are certainly intellectual property laws, and have been, in the US at least, for over 200 years. Check out the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office site, particularly http://www.uspto.gov/main/aboutuspto.htm and look under Intellectual Property Options (info on patents, trademarks, etc.). It's a good site for the basics of intellectual property law. The Copyright Office is actually under the aegis of the Library of Congress, so for complete information on copyright law specifically, go to http://www.copyright.gov - their FAQ section is quite good. Though the level of discussion on slashdot is higher than on most sites, and a lot of posters obviously are clear on the facts, it wouldn't hurt everyone to take a look at copyright basics at the source before speculating on what is and isn't covered.