Re: SOD Editor-Retrographer Volunteers

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

Date: Sun, 05 Dec 2004 22:03:25 -0500

Ｓｒｉｎ・Ｔｕａｒ wrote:
>
> Kevin Gowen wrote:
>
>> 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.
>
>
> With regard to patents, generally speaking you fill a form
> with nonsense then the lawyers see it through.

Fill a form with nonsense? Er, ok. Of course, then there are the patent
examiners.

> Nowadays the idea
> is to keep any valuable information out of the patent and to be as
> broad as possible in the claims.

Keep valuable information out of the patent? You realize that part of
getting a patent is full disclosure so that a person skilled in the
field could use the disclosed information to construct the patented
invention, right? That's the tradeoff: a limited monopoly in exchange
for telling the planet how to make the invention.

>> I don't know what you mean by "The way copyright is interpreted".
>
>
> There were some cases not too long ago regarding sampling in music,
> and even a case of a "similar" beat in some songs that all fell
> on the side of the accuser, even though they were stretches at
> best and well within the realm of fair use, in my non expert opinion.

Well, I'd have to read the cases to state an opinion.

> I dont care so much about the "modicum of originality" requirement
> as I do the extremely viral nature by which even a trivial similarity
> can be extended into a violation.

Do you have a particular case in mind?

>> 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.
>>
>
> It was a subject of some debate, and some particular eloquence from
> Thomas Jefferson. Furthermore, the US did proceed to ignore British
> copyrights and patents for quite some time. (had it not itd probably
> still be the "colonies") And hollywood cut its teeth dodging Edison
> and his patent army out on the west coast. If anything, historically,
> I'd say the US has a stronger base in infringement than enforcement.

I don't particularly see what Edison has to do with the fact that
copyright law is in the constitution or my opinion that intellectual
property law is not communist in the slightest.

>>> 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.
>
>
> Yes, kings granted favors, but they only existed within their own
> demense. Unlike today, where copyrights from any nation are generally
> enforced globally. The idea had to come from somewhere, after all.

Ok, although I really don't know what that has to do with anything I
said. You might want to read _Copyright in the Renaissance: Prints and
the Privilegio in Sixteenth-Century Venice and Rome_ by Witcombe. 

-- 
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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