Both copyright and patents do *not* grant an exclusive or a monopoly to any work or invention.

Those laws merely protect against anyone who is not the owner of the right to “commercially exploit” the work.

I can, for instance, with perfect legality copy a patented design and use it, as long as I do not make money selling it. The same thing is true for copyrighted works. I can ask my neighbor to lend me her CD of copyrighted music and I can listen to that music without anyone having any right to tell me not to. As long as there is no commerce and no money making involved, neither copyright nor patents can rightfully be used to “protect” the owner of a patent or a copyrighted work.

This is an extremely important principle, because the new maker culture will run into heavy attacks under copyright and patent protection. We need to firmly establish that there are important exemptions from those seemingly overwhelming laws that tend to stifle creative endeavor.