Quote:
Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward
Hitch, here is what the US Constitution, the basis for all US law says:
Article I Section 8. Clause 8 Patent and Copyright Clause of the Constitution. [The Congress shall have power] To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.
Note limited times. Note exclusive right i.e. a monopoly.
This is for both patent and copyright (and also trademark, but that is a really different kettle of fish).
There is no property. There is a legal monopoly over the copyright. Now, for the duration of the copyright, it <looks> like property, but it is not, no more so that an option to buy a piece of property with an expiration date, is a title to the underlying property. (You can't unilaterally keep extending the option expiration date to please your own interests.)
Yet that is what has been happening to copyright. At the time of creation of a copyrighted item, the public (through its representative, the US government), granted a copyright with a defined expiration date. Both parties were happy with the term, else the creator would not have created the copyrighted material. (From 1909 to 1976, this term was 28 years, plus another 28 years, if extension was applied for.)
I have no problem with the terms being changed, but I have <great> problems with it being applied retroactively. I have the same problem with changing the terms of <any> contract, unilaterally and retroactively. To do so, is to cheat the public out of residual value (if any) that the copyright holder agreed to give up, at expiration, for the exclusive legal control (and the monopoly profits) the copyright (monopoly) granted.
RSE |
How does fiction fit into progress of science and useful arts?
You also see copyright infringement in the jewelry business. I have had customers come in take a picture of a copyrighted piece of jewelry and have another jeweler make a copy. Then bring it in to my store and tell me how much money they saved.
Apache