Conceptually why have we made distinctions between property and intellectual ownership? and within that why does some intellectual property expire after a time and why do different things expire after different times? Are there some intellectual properties we cannot own like though itself? I guess essentially what I’m asking is why have we classified these differently and how have we justified that?
You can own an idea only insofar as you keep it a secret. Once the idea is out there, it is equally owned by the minds it inhabits. Kinsella has a good argument against IP https://www.stephankinsella.com/publications/against-intellectual-property/ .
Thomas Jefferson on ideas as property: If NATURE has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea… No one possesses the less, because every other possess the whole of it. He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.