Re: Constitutional Challenge to (C) Code

Amy Stoller <redherring[_at_]tuna.net> wrote:
>
> reasonable hope that those children may benefit thereby. It is a
> sensible provision, given increased life expectancy. I hope it is not
> your position that creators and owners of intellectual property should
> be unable to leave anything of value to their spouses and children, or
> that their heirs should have to endure without remedy uses of their
> spouses or parents' life work which are repugnant to them.

I think I have seen somewhere that less than one percent of all intellectual property has any significant financial value after the first 50 years. For every "Danielle Steele" there are a thousand "John Smith"s and even Danielle Steele may not have much value in 50 years. For the vast majority, the creators would not be leaving "anything of value" to their heirs. And while I agree that heirs should be concerned about the reputation of their family I don't feel copyright law is the appropriate arena to limit free speech.

George Abbott
<glabbott[_at_]library.syr.edu> Received on Tue Mar 31 1998 - 16:31:12 GMT