Last edited Wed Apr 3, 2013, 12:58 AM - Edit history (1)
Also, to clarify, in stating we would be better off if we were to abolish copyright and patent laws is in comparison with the current law, which, in the case of copyrights, is the Sonny Bono monstrosity passed by the Republican controlled Congress in 1998, with the support of corporatist Democrats.
If we were to have the option of sensible copyright and patent law, as the framers intended, with sensible limits guided by the principle of promoting the general welfare by granting time-limited monpolies for the specific purpose of promoting innovation as a means to promote the general welfare, then that would be an entirely different matter, and would merit support.
But the current copyright law was passed for the specific purpose of extending monopolies to corporations who came into ownership of copyrights to works that were created without any expectation of a 70n - 120 year monopoly.
So yes, it is a mockery when Happy Birthday, which first appeared in print in 1912, after existing for an unknown period before then, and was used for decades as a presumed public domain song until copyrighted in 1935 by an entity that had nothing to do with its creation is valued at $5 million when sold to a division Time Warner, which now claims ownership until 2030.
It is a mockery when Disney bribes Congress to extend terms that were already generous enough for Walt, when he created Mickey without the terms of Sonny Bono's 1998 Act.
Current law does not function for benefit of artists any more than it does for the general welfare.
Current law functions to protect monopolies of the thieving corporations who have bribed crooked politicians.
Reasonable intellectual property law would be another matter, but that is not an option.
Current law is worse than nothing at all.
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