Re: NYT Editorial: The Coming of Copyright Perpetuity

[Mike Richter <mrichter@xxxxxxx>]

At 09:43 PM 1/16/2003 -0500, Mwcpc6@xxxxxxx wrote:
> Since the purpose of copyright is to benefit and encourage the person who
> creates of the work, any extension beyond the lifetime of the author is
> physically unlimited, since the benefit to a person cannot extend beyond that.

No, the purpose of copyright is "To promote the progress of science and
useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the
exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries". As usual,
the devil is in the details - in particular, in that the "authors and
inventors" now include their heirs and assigns, and that work for hire is
registered by a corporation which is a legal "person" and therefore
entitled to protection.

In my untrained and inexpert opinion, the decision by the Supremes comes
down to declaring that the Constitutional purpose may be ignored given the
Constitutional power assigned to the Congress.

Mike
mrichter@xxxxxxx
http://www.mrichter.com/