Quote:
Originally Posted by Elfwreck
Copyright limits natural (an odd word, that) property rights--just like laws against gun usage in city limits, or laws against dumping toxic chemicals, or laws about noise levels. All of those limit how you can use your legally-owned property.
We have plenty of laws that say "for [X] type of property, the following uses are forbidden." These can include burning it, putting it underground (even on your own land), making some noises with it, displaying it in public (certain magazines come to mind), sharing it with children, driving it without a license, and so on. We've decided, as as society, that some property uses should be restricted to keep us all safe and healthy. Or safer and healthier, anyway.
Copyright is one of those. It says, you may not use this legally-owned property in some ways. If you own a table, you can make & sell a copy of it; if you own a book, you may not. This limitation is supposed to encourage authors & artists to widely release their creations. It works... the problem is balancing the time period for blocking people's property rights against the encouragement factor.
I agree that copyright lengths should be a *lot* shorter. I don't agree that it should be abolished, or that there's anything inherently wrong with limiting people's use of their own property.
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Yes, it is sadly true that we've foolishly chosen to limit certain rights. Most of these are along the lines of 'it's better for a person to be raped, robbed or murdered than be given the reasonable chance of self-protection'. Bushwah! This is just another distraction to hide the ultimate goals of the police-statists.
And you're wrong. We do NOT have a natural right to drive an automobile. We DO have a natural right to buy one-presuming we have the money for it. One is a right (right of ownership of personal property) and one is a privilege ( privilege to operate said vehicle on public roads). Note that one can start a car and run it around one's private property without a valid driver's license.
Derek