Help Me Out Here: Copyright law (1 Viewer)

[Thomas Newton]

Bob,

You speak of "the original intent and purpose of copyright", then go on to talk about "publishers’ economic interests".

The Constitutional authorization for copyright is not based upon the principle that a publisher's economic interests outweigh the public's interests, or even have equal weight.

As the Supreme Court has written,

The monopoly privileges that Congress may authorize are neither unlimited nor primarily designed to provide a special private benefit. Rather, the limited grant is a means by which an important public purpose may be achieved. It is intended to motivate the creative activity of authors and inventors by the provision of a special reward, and to allow the public access to the products of their genius after the limited period of exclusive control has expired.

"The copyright law, like the patent statutes, makes reward to the owner a secondary consideration. In Fox Film Corp. v. Doyal, 286 U.S. 123, 127, Chief Justice Hughes spoke as follows respecting the copyright monopoly granted by Congress, 'The sole interest of the United States and the primary object in conferring the monopoly lie in the general benefits derived by the public from the labors of authors.' It is said that reward to the author or artist serves to induce release to the public of the products of his creative genius." United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc., 334 U.S. 131, 158 (1948).

 

[Tom Ryan]

I have a question, and forgive me if it's already been answered. If you buy a cd, but then lose that cd, are you allowed to download the songs from the internet (assuming you hadn't made a backup) and burn them to cd to replace the original? After all, aren't you paying for the right to use the music, regardless of the format it's on? It seems to me that backing your own copy up and getting someone else's backup for the same album would be about the same thing, since ultimately it's the exact same music. I did this with my U2 Best of 1980-1990 cd after my roommate lost it, and it was quite nice to be able to get that album back.

-Tom

 

[Bob_J_M]

Thomas,

Publisher's economic interests are a crucial consideration of the copyright law. Secondary, yes, but still crucial. Protecting these interests is necessary to ensure the continued development of new works.

And BTW, note that the reference to "publisher's economic interests" was in a quote from some people who know the copyright law far, far better than you or I. These two are professors at Yale and M.I.T.