Furdlog point to this essay that makes the interesting claim that copyright is more like real property than some of us like to think.
In one sense, their claim that "copyright is policy, not property," is an uninformative truism about all legal entitlements, and in another sense, represents a fundamental misconception of the history and concept of copyright. The concept and historical development of copyright are more substantial than its representation today as merely a monopoly privilege issued to authors according to the government's utility calculus.In other words, that the development of copyright has intentionally imbued the concept with direct parallels to other property ownership doctrine.
