Posted by Paul Rubin on 12/04/06 22:31

"PTravel" <ptravel@travelersvideo.com> writes:
> Copyright is an exclusive right, meaning the reserved rights are owned,
> entirely, by the copyright owner. It doesn't matter whether infringements
> are "not all bad" or not -- copyright is, by definition, a right to exclude.
> Your argument is pointless as it would mean, among other things, amending
> the Constitution and ignoring several hundred years of intellectual property
> jurisprudence.

No amendment to the constitution would be needed to make all
copyrights expire 24 hours after being issued, or to stop issuing them
altogether. The scope of exclusivity has also changed steadily over
the centuries since the Constitution was written, and that too could
be set back to where it was without an amendment.

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