[Coco] Republishing Magazines

[jdaggett at gate.net]

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; 


Article I Section 8 US Constitution.

It is my guess that Congress made copywrights and author protection 70 years was 
to give the full measure of life of a writer. Suppose he wrote a novel when young. 
This would ensure that his work was copyrighted for his life or most of it. 

Yes Congress has the power to change how long the copyrights are, but not restrict 
the rights of protection to the author. 


james

On 27 Dec 2003 at 18:55, Alex wrote:

> On Dec 27, 2003, at 2:47 PM, Neil Morrison wrote:
> 
> > I believe that all copyrights (and patents) are a right, granted by
> > the State on behalf of the citizenry and intended to benefit both
> > authors of works and the public at large. I'd like to see a system
> > whereby the rights revert to the State at some point and may be
> > licensed by the State as a revenue stream. That way the author would
> > get almost all of the income at the beginning and would get a
> > declining amount over time, varied by the value and popularity of
> > the work. The whole way these systems work is a hodgepodge, so that
> > we see the guy who invented the intermittent windshield wiper having
> > to sue each auto company one at a time, and the inventors of major
> > things like Chester Carlson (Xerox copiers) and Philo T. Farnsworth
> > (Television Image Dissector) basically get very little of the income
> > whereas Bill Gates gets unlimited co-operation from law enforcement
> > to protect even his obsolete software in perpetuity.
> 
> Currently the law is written so that IP eventually reverts to the
> public domain.  Patents after a reasonably short time, and copyrights
> after too darned long (no less than 70 years).  Personally I think
> that the government directly administering IP licenses is a horrible
> idea.  It would undoubtedly end up being less fair than the system in
> place.
> 
> 
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