Re: copyright and natural law?

On Tue, Sep 15, 1998, Moritz Roettinger <moritz.roettinger[_at_]dg23.cec.be> wrote:
>
> On Mon, 14 Sep 1998, Mark Lemley <mlemley[_at_]mail.law.berkeley.edu> wrote:
> >
> > On 9/11/98, Moritz Roettinger <moritz.roettinger[_at_]dg23.cec.be> wrote:
> > >
> > > 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).
> > >
> > ************
> >
> > Sorry, I may have misunderstood your reference to a "property right...
> > not granted to him by anybody" and existing at the time of creation.
> > If it's not a natural right, what is its philosophical basis?
>
> I see in a "natural right" a right which is according to the general
> appreciation vested in somebody without having necessarily been fixed
> by positive law. Example: human rights. They are protected by the
> constitution, but even without such positive law they are generally
> regarding as "pre-existing".
>
> Copyright is to my mind not a natural right, but a right based on
> statutory law. It is the Copyright Act that creates this right. On
> that basis, the author of a copyrightable work (original etc.) becomes
> the owner/proprietor of copyright automatically in the moment of the
> creation of the work without any other legal or administrative act.
> Thus copyright is an "original right" ("droit originaire", "originares
> Recht").
>
> In contrast to that is the "derivated right" ("droit derive",
> "abgeleitetes Recht") which is granted (through an individual legal
> act) to a person, such as licenses.
>
> Does this separation makes it clear what I wanted to say?
>
> > Regarding works for hire,
>
> I prefer separating the discussion on works made for hire since the
> concepts between US and European law differ too much.

Again, I might refer the group to Immanuel Kant's work "On the Injustice of Reprinting (pirating) Books".

See Steve Palmquist's Kant Page on the internet to inquire about the work.

Michael A Scarpitti
Assistant Editor
Materials Evaluation
(800) 222-2768 X207
(614) 274-6003 X207
e-mail mscarpit[_at_]asnt.org Received on Wed Sep 16 1998 - 13:45:41 GMT