Quote:
Originally Posted by pwalker8
Not sure why you think the government should pay for something they will get for free eventually. Perhaps you are using the term eminent domain to mean reducing the term of copyright.
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Eminent Domain = the right of a government or its agent to expropriate private property for public use, with payment of compensation.
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I think fjtorres meant that the government can't just take privately owned properties like books from the author and distribute them to others with a bit of compensation provided to them. The government (usually on local level) has been known to seize land such as right of ways connected with where a new road is planned with monies given to the land owner as compensation. So if you are on your own private land and the government decides it wants to build a road over it they can claim eminent domain and take the land in exchange for compensation given to you. I don't think they will ever extend that to books myself. After all how could they justify taking let's say a poem that I wrote and putting it in Public Domain while I'm still living? What purpose could that serve? Eminent Domain is usually applied to tangible assets such as land, not intellectual assets like literature.