Interesting People mailing list archives
more on King Cotton, Meet King Copyright by Sterling Newberry
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Sun, 15 Aug 2004 18:07:46 -0400
Begin forwarded message: From: Seth Johnson <seth.johnson () RealMeasures dyndns org> Date: August 15, 2004 6:01:54 PM EDT To: dave () farber net Cc: Ip <ip () v2 listbox com> Subject: Re: [IP] King Cotton, Meet King Copyright by Sterling Newberry Reply-To: seth.johnson () RealMeasures dyndns org For IP, if you wish. More precise terminology is the exact constitutional language: exclusive rights. I never use the term "intellectual property," except in scarequotes. Exclusive rights conveys that the rights are statutory, and alludes directly to the Constitutional language with its various qualifying aspects: that this is a power of Congress to grant or deny, that exclusive rights are
granted for a purpose, and that they have a limited duration.It would be well if people would read "Common Sense," which turned the tide
of opinion in the American Colonies by explaining the idea of naturalrights. Before Thomas Paine released that work, the independence camp was marginal, and the debate was over how to convey to England that we did not oppose the crown, but the Parliament's various taxes and malfeasances. The
premise had been that the government assured us of our rights, but when Paine published his work, the result was electric, turning the populace strongly toward taking up arms for independence.The corollary, of course, is that there are numerous rights that are granted by statute, and the distinction was foremost in the minds of the "founding
fathers." Thomas Jefferson famously held against property being held in perpetuity, at least as a matter of natural rights, as in his somewhat famous letter to Madison stating his belief "that the earth belongs inusufruct to the living," available in numerous places on the web, such as:
http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/P/tj3/writings/brf/jefl81.htm Seth Johnson David Farber wrote:
Begin forwarded message: From: Jim Balter <jim () balter name> Date: August 15, 2004 4:34:15 PM EDT To: dave () farber net Subject: King Cotton, Meet King Copyright by Sterling Newberry http://www.bopnews.com/archives/001265.html#1265 In business they call it the "first law of holes". If you are in a hole, stop digging. Here is something very simple that people could do to stop digging the hole we are in with respect to information and its ownership. Stop using the phrase "Intellectual Property". Under the US constitution, there is no such thing: 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; That US law flagrantly violates this is immaterial to the constitutionality. That power enforces these violations of the constitution is immaterial to the one right which ordinary citizens have in the matter: the right to speak the truth. There is no such thing as Intellectual Property under the US Constitution. What phrase should one use? Intellectual Capital. The result of discoveries and writings is based on an exclusive use, this is a framework, not of property, but of capital. Property implies perpetuity - one buys property and it belongs to you and your heirs forever. The constitution does not authorize such a grant. By calling it "property" the battle of those who are raiding the commons is already won: it makes the expectations of the outcome the same as the outcome of owning a house. This is not the analogy that the constitution draws. In fact, the constitution makes clear that the enforcement of exclusivity is a power of the people - because the constitution can only have powers which come from the people - and not in the work itself. It also can do so only for the purpose of promoting the Arts and Science. Thus the right of creating "artificial scarcity" of a work - by withdrawing it from the public - is not intrinsically assured. After all, how does it help the arts and sciences if people are not able to procur information? ... -- <J Q B> ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as seth.johnson () RealMeasures dyndns org To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ipArchives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
-- DRM is Theft! We are the Stakeholders! New Yorkers for Fair Use http://www.nyfairuse.org [CC] Counter-copyright: http://realmeasures.dyndns.org/cc I reserve no rights restricting copying, modification or distribution of this incidentally recorded communication. Original authorship should beattributed reasonably, but only so far as such an expectation might hold for usual practice in ordinary social discourse to which one holds no claim of
exclusive rights. ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as interesting-people () lists elistx com To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
Current thread:
- more on King Cotton, Meet King Copyright by Sterling Newberry David Farber (Aug 15)