Re: SOD Editor-Retrographer Volunteers

From: Kevin Gowen (kgowenNOSPAM_at_myfastmail.com)
Date: 12/06/04 

Date: Sun, 05 Dec 2004 20:16:10 -0500

Ｓｒｉｎ・Ｔｕａｒ wrote:
>
> Kevin Wayne Williams wrote:
>
>> Ｓｒｉｎ・Ｔｕａｒ wrote:
>> What is communistic about the assertion that the creator of a thing,
>> and only the creator of a thing, has the right to determine who is
>> entitled to a copy and how much he should pay? Seems like the
>> antithesis of communism to me.
>> KWW
>
>
> The problem is that all work is hopelessly derivative. We all
> "stand upon the shoulders of giants" all day. The way
> copyright is interpreted, combined with an effectively perpetual
> duration means that eventually all expression will be covered
> by gargantuan government granted monopoly houses.

I think that this rather takes things to a silly extreme. All works are
derivative, but not hopelessly so, and US intellectual property law
certainly takes this fact into account. For example, the inventive
step/nonobvious requirement of patent law. In copyright law, something
is copyrightable if it has only a "modicum of originality". It's a very
low standard of originality.

I don't know what you mean by "The way copyright is interpreted".

> As a gross concept, I agree with copyright as a fair trade off-
> say were it to last 10 years non-extensible or something, and
> if it didnt cover significantly modified derivitives and had
> very clearly spelled out fair use terms that werent so easy to
> simply ignore.
>
> I guess since the concept was first encoded into law it has since
> rampaged out of control and now threatens to turn the US into
> something worse than the soviet union ever dreamed of.

Well, in the US the concept of copyright was first encoded into law in
1789. I don't see anything communist about copyright law. I agree with
KWW that it is rather anti-communist.

> Even the diametric alternative, anarchic renaissance style patron of the
> arts funding for promoting what copyright does now, though less
> efficient, is preferable to where we are heading.

You might be surprised that goverment-granted monopolies to artists
existed during the Renaissance. 

-- 
Kevin
"This is the best election night in history."--Democratic National 
Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe, Nov. 2, 2004, just before 8 p.m. EST

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