Re: Copyrights as Property (Was: Copyright Extension Bill Passes Congress)

On Wed, 4 Nov 1998, Craig A. Summerhill <craig[_at_]cni.org> wrote:
>
> I have spent the last two days at a metadata workshop where there
> was a presentation by a representative of CISAC (and other music /
> recording arts communities) who is trying to solve a rights
> management problem, chiefly. As a result, we kinda have a proposal
> on the table that sounds a little like what Mike writes above. The
> theory goes that the "work" is an intellectual creation and
> "expressions" and/or "manifestations" of the work follow from that...

Congratulations to CISAC for seeing things correctly :)

> You can't copyright an idea. Beyond that, prove to me that something
> which lies entirely in your mind, Mike, or the mind of any creator,
> meets a requirement for fixation... No fixation, no copyright.
 

No, of course you can't copyright an idea, nor is what's in my head a fixation (an obsession, maybe ...). But I don't copyright what's in my head. I copyright my fixation of it, my fixed representation, my exact words and music.

That's why I question whether the work -- what's in my head -- can be public property.

• Mike Bradley National Writers Union <mike[_at_]sphinx.com>