Re: copyright expiration as a spur to creativity

On Tue, 04 Aug 1998, Karsten M. Self <kmself[_at_]ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>
> While I'd argue for a significant time period before permanent lapse of
> copyright to an author, preferably several years, my general feeling is
> that if the author cannot find a publisher willing to publish a work,
> then there probably is little or no commercial interest in it.

This paragraph presupposes that the only value to a copyrighted work is in the commercial viability of the work. Is this an assumption we ought to make? Under the U.S. Constitution, the goal is to promote the sciences and the "useful arts," and granting copyright (including commercial) monopoly is a means to that end. The "value" under our scheme lies in the creation of original works, NOT in the money derived from them -- that's an impetus to creativity (for some -- many artists and writers have no intention of getting rich off their creations), but not the ultimate target.

Daniel J. Schaeffer
<daniel_schaeffer[_at_]kirkland.com> Received on Wed Aug 05 1998 - 14:37:28 GMT