I have seen an author (Spider Robinson) respond to this concept. He is
extremely opposed to copyright in perpetuity. This from a man who makes
his living off creating copyrighted materials. His reasoning, which he
freely admits he got from Robert Heinlein, is that if you make
copyrights permanent (never ending), then almost anything people write
will eventually become actionable in court. This will end up stifling
creativity, because you never know if what you're writing is going to
get you sued. (I'll try to find his article on that soon...)
Keith McComb
-----Original Message-----
From: Templarsog1_at_aol.com [mailto:Templarsog1_at_aol.com]
Sent: Friday, September 07, 2001 2:22 PM
To: newtontalk_at_newtontalk.net
Subject: Re: [NTLK] More on law
In a message dated 9/7/01 2:09:51 PM, engleerica_at_yahoo.com writes:
<< In other words what Madison or Jefferson think matters
nil. What does matter is what the congress in 1978
thought. And what they thought was "Lifetime of author
plus X years" which was once 25, then 50 and now a
whopping 75. >>
It should actually be in perpetuity. Seventy five years is not long
enough.=20
If you use your time, energy and intellect to create something it
is=20
yours. It should be of no import whether or not you 'use' or 'do
something'=20
with it. It is yours and nobody should be able to use it without your=20
expressed permission and certainly not without compensation.=20
Someone on the list said you have to make a reasonable effort to
contact=20
the individual or entity and if they do not cntact you back then you
probably=20
can go ahead. I disagree, the entity or individual may not want to
contact=20
you and is under no obligation to do so. If you do not have permission
you=20
don't use whatever it is you want to use.=20
From this stems the notion of private property and all those rights
associated with that concept.
If you build a house, boat, or anything else and you choose not to
'use=20
it', does that mean that in 5,10,15,20 years someone should be able to
come=20
along and say,"well, you are not using this so I will". I don't think
so,
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