2009-05-27 The founding fathers had copyright right

2009-05-27 Gerry Canavan Independent Weekly \copyright\Inherent Vice\intellectual property\book reviews http://www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A395551 The founding fathers had copyright right The founding fathers had copyright right  One of the duties given to Congress in Article I of the Constitution is "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."

What this means – contrary to many people's understandings of what copyrights are for – is that copyrights and patents don't simply exist to enrich their authors and inventors; rather, the idea is to allow these people to have "exclusive right" to created works "for limited times" only insofar as this is necessary "to promote the progress of science and useful arts." Copyright, in other words, is a means to an end, not an end in itself.

This original vision has surely been lost. The Copyright Act of 1790 – the first passed by the U.S. Congress – set copyrights for a single term of 14 years, with renewal possible for a second term of 14 years if the author was still alive. Today copyrights last for the life of the author plus 70 years, which in practice means that almost nothing created during your lifetime will be out of copyright for as long as you or your children are alive. To take but one example, generously assuming Joss Whedon lives until he is 80, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997) will not enter the public domain until 2114 – especially ironic given the show's own use of public domain works like Dracula.

Worse, it's not clear that anything currently under copyright will ever be allowed into the public domain; corporations like Disney have successfully lobbied for copyright extension whenever 1920s properties like Mickey Mouse have come anywhere close to losing protection. Book review of Inherent Vice by Lucas Hilderbrand

&ldquo;The Copyright Act of 1790 – the first passed by the U.S. Congress – set copyrights for a single term of 14 years, with renewal possible for a second term of 14 years if the author was still alive. Today copyrights last for the life of the author plus 70 years, which in practice means that almost nothing created during your lifetime will be out of copyright for as long as you or your children are alive.&rdquo;   