Re: benefits of the public domain and limited copyright terms?

The public domain is freedom. If freedom is good, then the public domain is good.

Obviously if we want to live in society with other human beings, we need to restrain the margins of our freedoms somewhat. If we want to achieve certain policy objectives, we may need to constrain our marginal freedoms a little more. But this should not be done out-of-hand. If we refrain from exercising some of our freedom to copy in order to promote learning, we shouldn't give up more of our freedom than necessary. Making copyrights expire is the surest way to keep those to whom we sacrifice some of our marginal freedoms from turning our gift to them into a perpetual feudal-style privilege, thereby reducing us to a state of serfdom.

This is the chief reason we should have a public domain. I also have pragmatic examples of how the public domain is a resource for authors, but I'll post those at another time.

Tim Phillips
<hrothgar[_at_]telepath.com> Received on Sat May 06 2000 - 13:17:47 GMT