Law
commentary on the Law
Monday, March 25, 2002Intellectual Property Protectors
Dave writes, "Today's mail page has a quote from Rob Enderle. I guess I'm becoming a BigPub?
" [Scripting News]So I jump to the link to read it, and a phrase Enderle uses to describe the horribly acronymed CBDTPA strikes a chord: "the push to make PCs intellectual property protectors."
Yes! Protect my intellectual property by giving it the widest possible distribution!
This meaning is the opposite of that intended, I'm sure. :-D
5:36:49 PM # Google It!
categories: Language, Law, Media
The Sins of the Fathers
Mark Pilgrim's "What the Past Will Look Like Someday", via The Shifted Librarian, coincides nicely with Dan Bricklin's observations on copy protection.It would behoove the legislators and others considering these issues to re-read a certain widely copied document. If they remember their grammar, then this clause makes sense in only one way.
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;
— U.S. Constitution, Article 1, Section 8, Clause 8
The key elements are "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts" and "for limited Times." Laws made under this clause must "promote the progress of science and useful arts;" this trumps the rest of the clause. If this condition is met, the law must be "for limited times."
Now, S.2048, the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act (CBDTPA), would place stringent requirements on equipment used to produce and distribute copyrighted works. These requirements fail to satisfy Congress's mandate "to promote the progress of science and useful arts" for one very simple reason:
Work cannot be copied.
If the work cannot be copied, it cannot be preserved.
If the work cannot be preserved, it cannot last.
If the work cannot last, future generations cannot learn from it.
As Sir Isaac Newton put it,
What Des-Cartes did was a good step. You have added much several ways, & especially in taking ye colours of thin plates into philosophical consideration. If I have seen further it is by standing on ye shoulders of Giants.
—Newton to Hooke, 5 Feb. 1676
2:14:57 PM # Google It!
categories: Language, Law, Media