Re: Article 1, Section 8, Clause 8.

On Fri, 28 Jul 2000, Christopher Gwyn <christopher[_at_]icopyright.com> wrote:
>
> "To promote the progress of science and useful arts by securing
> for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive rights
> to their respective writings and discoveries."
> (United States Constitution, Article 1, Section 8, Clause 8).
>
> Copyright law as enacted in the United States clearly allows an author
> to sell the copyright to a work that he or she has created. I can't
> think of any interpretation of Clause 8 that would not allow an author
> to license a work in any way that he or she sees fit... But if the
> author has the "exclusive rights to their... writings" -- does that
> mean that the author can act to deprive his or her self of that
> right -- i.e. sell the copyright.

Many copyright owners have rejected offers to publish for reasons that range from privacy to greed. More basic than the Constitutional powers is the authors' ability and right to destroy copies of any work before publication, thereby depriving the public of any opportunity to share.

Albert Henderson
Editor, PUBLISHING RESEARCH QUARTERLY 1994-2000 <70244.1532[_at_]compuserve.com> Received on Wed Aug 02 2000 - 13:07:14 GMT