[IP] King Cotton, Meet King Copyright by Sterling Newberry
Begin forwarded message:
From: Jim Balter <jim@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: August 15, 2004 4:34:15 PM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: King Cotton, Meet King Copyright by Sterling Newberry
http://www.bopnews.com/archives/001265.html#1265
In business they call it the "first law of holes". If you are in a
hole, stop digging.
Here is something very simple that people could do to stop digging the
hole we are in with respect to information and its ownership.
Stop using the phrase "Intellectual Property". Under the US
constitution, there is no such thing:
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;
That US law flagrantly violates this is immaterial to the
constitutionality. That power enforces these violations of the
constitution is immaterial to the one right which ordinary citizens
have in the matter: the right to speak the truth. There is no such
thing as Intellectual Property under the US Constitution.
What phrase should one use? Intellectual Capital. The result of
discoveries and writings is based on an exclusive use, this is a
framework, not of property, but of capital. Property implies perpetuity
- one buys property and it belongs to you and your heirs forever. The
constitution does not authorize such a grant.
By calling it "property" the battle of those who are raiding the
commons is already won: it makes the expectations of the outcome the
same as the outcome of owning a house. This is not the analogy that the
constitution draws. In fact, the constitution makes clear that the
enforcement of exclusivity is a power of the people - because the
constitution can only have powers which come from the people - and not
in the work itself. It also can do so only for the purpose of promoting
the Arts and Science. Thus the right of creating "artificial scarcity"
of a work - by withdrawing it from the public - is not intrinsically
assured. After all, how does it help the arts and sciences if people
are not able to procur information?
...
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<J Q B>
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