Re: Florida Pre-paid v. College Savings Bank

On Thu, 1 Jul 1999, Nick Zales <zales[_at_]execpc.com> wrote:
>
> I submit our copyright laws as they now stand are wholly
> inadequate to meet the demands of digital information. If they
> do anything, it is to cause great confusion. This is not desirable
> for anyone.

     It's hard to add to Jeroen Hellingman's excellent post on why copyright law today does not work and is in fact falling apart at the seams. As he said:

> Copyrights were conceived in a time when it still took a considerable
> investment to copy a work, especially in large quantities, and only few
> could afford to do so.

     Solutions?

1. Get copyright actions out of Federal court and into state small claims court were most begin.
2. Make damages certain, or simply require a violator to buy the licensed product. Thus no damages or attorney's fees beyond a token amount.
3. Stop placing "hidden taxes" on blank tapes and the like.
4. A Constitutional Amendment that allows copyright holders to sue States for infringement.

As it now stands, copyright law does not work because, (1) it is too easy to copy things, (2) it is too expensive to press claims in Federal court; (3) Federal judges, like the rest of us, lack a basic understanding of copyright law because it is too confusing and uncertain; (4) make the U.S. Copyright Office grant copyrights with strict scrutiny in the way the Patent Office grants patents; and (5) shorten the copyright term to ten years.

Nick Zales
Zales Law Office
Milwaukee, WI
<zales[_at_]execpc.com> Received on Mon Jul 05 1999 - 20:25:32 GMT