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Originally Posted by gmw
Just curious. What exactly are "the rights of society" in this situation?
I've seen this idea mentioned before and have had some trouble understanding it. I don't quite see where any particular law gives anyone "rights" over anothers writing (etc.). Is there a constitutional right to photocopy? (I'm quite likely missing something obvious, but I'm not too proud to ask.)
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Natural rights, if it doesn't physically affect someone else and there were no law against it could you do it? Or to put it another way everything not forbidden is allowed. There is no constitutional right to photocopy, just a natural one, the constitution only lists rights that the government can't take away. That it has the power to take away others doesn't change that they are rights.
The right to copy was traded away for a limited time in exchange for getting more stuff to copy later. The same idea as the patent system, protect an invention for a time in exchange for making the plans public. Protect a book, or what was probably higher on the priority list in the 1790s, a map, for a limited time so that later it could be of use to everyone. That limited monopoly is how society pays the inventor or artist.