Re: Haworth Press Journals

Mark Perkins writes:
>
> My understanding of the US Constitution with respect to Copyright is
> that it places specific limits on what Congress can and cannot legislate.
> Therefore, in constitutional terms, Congress cannot take "a view" that
> copyright is "purely a means to an end" without amending the constitution."

My original point about Congress taking "a view" assumed that it was not exercizing the full reach of its powers under the Constitution. Granted that the fair use doctrine evolved as judge-made law under earlier versions of the Copyright Act, it may yet have been possible for Congress legislatively to override these rulings by eliminating fair use entirely. Obviously we won't ever know the answer to that, since Congress has now incorporated the doctrine in the statute.

The reference to the theory underlying the Constitutional copyright provision is of course my own interpretation, but I think it squares with the history and produces the most equitable result.

Vance R. Koven
attorney at law
Boston MA
(koven[_at_]umbsky.cc.umb.edu) Received on Fri Apr 08 1994 - 16:07:32 GMT