Re: copyright and natural law?

On Thu, 10 Sep 1998, Mark Lemley <mlemley[_at_]mail.law.berkeley.edu> wrote:
>
> Moritz Roettinger <moritz.roettinger[_at_]dg23.cec.be> wrote:
> >
> > No. Intellectual property in literary works belongs right from the
> > beginning to the author - and only to him and originally to him. This
> > property right is not a derivated right and is not granted to him by
> > anybody. In the moment of the creation of the work he becomes the
> > author and automatically the owner of copyright. It is certainly not
> > the public who acts in whatever way "generously". The public has
> > nothing to say.
> >
> > Mr Phillips, I do not know where you come from and what you do.
> > But what you write is contrary to all generally accepted copyright
> > theories and doctrines, and it is contrary to US and European law
> > and also to the constitution. Your argumentation reminds me of
> > the very beginning of copyright in the early 19th century. Since
> > then your approach is no longer consistent with law.
> >
> ***********
>
> With respect to Dr. Roettinger, while his natural law approach may
> comport with some European laws, it is *not* the basis for U.S. law.
> Copyright in the U.S. is explicitly an instrumental grant, designed to
> give an incentive for authors to create. It is defined and limited by
> statute; if there were no statute, there would be no right of ownership.
> [And it's not even the case that the individual who creates something is
> always, or even usually, the copyright owner. Under U.S. law, the most
> recent statistics I have seen suggest that something more than half of
> all copyrighted works are in fact "works made for hire" in which the
> person who does the writing gets no rights whatsoever].

I did not say that it is a natural right. But please see my comments of today on that subject (under a different subject - apologies for confusing you with the change of subjects). As far as "works made for hire" are concerned, can't you say - also according to US law - that this is a so-called "legal license", i.e. copyright belongs in the moment of creation to the author who is by law obliged to license it to the employer etc.?

Moritz Roettinger

Dr Moritz Roettinger LL.M.
European Commission, Brussels
Universitites of Vienna and Saarbruecken moritz.roettinger[_at_]dg23.cec.be Received on Fri Sep 11 1998 - 13:06:59 GMT