Re: copyright expiration as a spur to creativity

On 01 September 1998, Albert Henderson <noblestation[_at_]compuserve.com> wrote:
>
> On Fri, 28 Aug 1998, Joseph Liu <liu3[_at_]law.harvard.edu> wrote:
> >
> > Moreover, as Dan points out, even within the group of IP creators,
> > there may be differing views. Authors who have already created their
> > works will want more protection, whereas potential creators will want
> > both protection for their own works and greater freedom to build off
> > prior work.
>
> The term of a commercial lease is of critical importance to a
> prospective tenant. Although some retailers, for instance, want short
> term seasonal kiosks in a mall, anyone who will invest in architecture
> and major promotion must have either a term sufficient to recover
> investments or ownership. Why would such dynamics not apply to
> copyright?
>
> I don't see why a "potential" author or artist is unable or unwilling
> to obtain permission to quote when it is necessary to do so. The
> protection ultimately works in their favor!
>
> > At some point, a long copyright term may work against the interests of
> > both consumers and future authors. I don't know precisely what that
> > point is, but my original point was that the question should not be
> > left to solely to existing copyright owners.
>
> Why would perpetual copyright deprive interested parties
> any more than ownership of real estate or personal property?
> I must accept that I am denied "access" to your property
> forever unless you are willing to loan, lease, or sell it.

As has been pointed out by me and others, IP differs from real property in several significant ways. For Mr Henderson to continue to treat them the same, and then to base arguments on that premiss, is intellectually dishonest.

In the first place, IP cannot really be "owned", only the reproduction rights can be owned. It's only real value lies precisely in its availability to others, for a price. Secondly, copies of IP may be sold over and over again to different parties. I cannot sell you my Leica M-3 but once, after which you have it and I don't. On the other hand, Merriam-Webster can sell thousands of the Third New International dictionary without diminishing their ownership of the work. And so on.

Michael A Scarpitti
Assistant Editor
Materials Evaluation
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PO Box 28518
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<mscarpit[_at_]asnt.org> Received on Wed Sep 02 1998 - 14:30:23 GMT