soapbox time ... I'd rather argue with Lawrence Lessig via email. (Which I've done once or twice, but not in this century.) He's free to make his content available for free, but not to make the content of others available for free. (The Napster context was when our discussions occurred; the court in that matter travelled in my direction, and took apart his.) We've gone down this route before, and I think it's best to not repeat oneself excessively. One of those copyright cases I linked to yesterday was a Supreme Court ruling holding that it wasn't unconstitutional by extending copyright terms during the term. Oh, well. (Contrary to my position.) |We're basically on the same page here, except that I think a 14 year copyright term (even with one renewal) is too short. We both agree that the current terms are too long. For an individual, life plus 70 years. Sounds more like a prison term for rape. "Original intent" is rather passe -- Justice Stevens actually used the original intent doctrine in an attempt to all but explain away the CLEARLY DEFINED individual right to bear arms contained in the Second Amendment. It's been there every time I read the thing, but justices and judges, going back as far as U.S. v Miller (1929) that provided for the regulation of machine guns. Antonin Scalia got it right, and put 'original intent' into the dustbin of history. -----Original Message----- >From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx> >Sent: Jun 29, 2008 5:24 AM >To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx >Subject: [opendtv] Re: MPAA wants to stop DVRs from recording some movies > >At 11:50 PM -0400 6/28/08, John Willkie wrote: >>it that helps you feel better, okay. You're not providing me any >>new information, and in the grand scheme of things, you are drawing >>a distinction without a difference. >> >>However, YOUR RIGHTS and MINE are non-existent in this context, at >>least as regards copyrights held by others. >> >>"Fair use" isn't a right; it's a legal defense to a claim of >>copyright infringement. Copyrights are a right that comes DIRECTLY >>from the constitution. >> > >As long as we are trying to be fair here... > >The original intent of those who wrote the Constitution would tend to >favor fair use over the rights of the creator of the intellectual >property. The framers were concerned about the ability of content >owners to use the power of government to protect their rights to the >detriment of society.They believed, as I do today, that the rapid >proliferation of new ideas and the ability for "the people" to use >these ideas and build upon them trumps the rights of the creators to >protect and benefit from them into perpetuity. Thus the Constitution >was framed in a manner to limit the rights of the creators of >intellectual property fo that give them exclusive r the benefit of >the entire country. > >There is a simple bargain in this. The power of the government can be >used to protect the LIMITED rights of the creators of intellectual >property via the granting of copyrights and patents that give them >exclusive control of the intellectual property for a LIMITED time, >after which the ideas are to be pushed into the public domain. >Patents were intended to speed up the proliferation of new ideas by >using the force of government to enforce licenses for those patents. > >I think it would be more than fair to say that the framers would be >very pissed off about what has happened to their original intent as >it relates to patents and copyrights. > >There is a rich history behind fair use that predates our Constitution. > >I would recommend reading the book at this link by Lawrence Lessig - it's FREE! > >http://www.free-culture.cc/freecontent/ > >Regards >Craig > > > >---------------------------------------------------------------------- >You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways: > >- Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at >FreeLists.org > >- By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word >unsubscribe in the subject line. > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways: - Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org - By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.