Re: "Against Intellectual Property"

Linda said:
<<<I am a strong supporter of copyrights since that is the law, but I
believe that we should be able to change the law to react to the times and protect creators against infringement as the Constitution gave Congress the power to do. ...>>>
But then
<<<I was talking about the government action of limiting the term of
copyrights. >>>

This doesn't seem to recognize that it is the CONSTITUTION that specified that copyrights should exist for limited terms. The Constitution thereby specifically prohibits Congress from granting perpetual copyright terms, although they seem to be trying their best to circumvent that part of the clause. And, of course, careful reading of the clause makes it clear that the only reason the founding fathers gave for allowing this temporary monopoly was the resulting anticipated enrichment of the public domain. The concept of copyright as personal property in perpetuity doesn't appear to have had any appeal for the founding fathers at all.

Laureen C. Urquiaga
Access Services/Copyright Librarian
Howard W. Hunter Law Library Received on Wed Aug 16 2000 - 20:51:27 GMT