Alex Ionescu wrote:
Richard Campbell wrote:
Ermm....IP = intellectual property...
I think that was another one of Mike's sarcastic jokes that nobody ever gets ;)
The only sarcasm was displaying the established use of IP for "Internet Protocol". The rest was dead serious. If someone uses that (american-lawyer-"invented"?) acronym to bunch together completely unrelated (and NOT universally accepted, nether bunched together nor by themselves) concepts, ideas, conventions and laws, instead of referring to the exact concept they are intending, they are doing this out of two possible reasons:
1. Ignorance. Perhaps the person using the acronym isn't aware these are a number of completely unrelated concepts bunched together? Perhaps it is, but isn't aware that by using the acronym it's hurting others (by using the acronym it gives the acronym credibility)? Perhaps it isn't a person, but a sheep doing what "all others" (within visual range) do? The possibilities are almost endless - but the result is still hurting others.
2. Malice, to (try to) spread the venom to make people believe there is some such universally accepted umbrella term in the real world, where all the concepts they try to cram under this umbrella most certainly are separate, and completely unrelated issues.
Giving the ones using that acronym the benefit of a dubt, I believe most uses are due to ignorance.
But whatever the reasons people use that acronym, it still is spreading of FUD - and it is hurting others (too).
/Mike