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Civilization, the thing that makes humans different from the other animals on this planet, is the ability to pass knowledge down from generation to generation with each successive generation building on the knowledge of all generations that came before. It is this human knowledgebase which has allowed us to progress to the point we are at today and it is this knowledgebase that is now under attack, an attack that threatens the very roots of civilization. In 1790 George Washington signed into law Copyright Act of 1790, which granted a temporary monopoly on the knowledge to authors, and inventors of that knowledge with a limitation of 28 years. The reason for this temporary monopoly was to allow Authors and Inventors a reasonable return on their labors. (note I didn't say maximizing profits) After that 28 years was up the knowledge became part of the human knowledge base and civilization could once again build freely on that knowledge.
All copyright and patent law in the US is based on an article in the Constitution, which granted congress the power "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. " At the time it may have seemed like a good idea to grant a temporary monopoly in order to allow authors (copyright) and inventors (patent) time to profit from their writings and discoveries and this article became the bases for both copyright and patent laws. However the founding fathers were very careful not to make the mistakes Europe had made in creating a monopoly. They specifically worded the constitution to allow for authors and inventors to get a fair return but also to prevent copyright and patents from being used as a control mechanism to control knowledge which was the reasoning behind Copyright in Europe. This was a very important difference between the power granted to congress in the constitution and what had happened in European copyright laws. Also notice that the words "fair return" were used instead of "maximize profits." Copyright is not about maximizing profits, it's possible to get a fair return even with limited copying going on, in fact it was legal to copy as long as money wasn't involved up until 1976 when our copyright laws were changed.
Since that time, many revisions have been made to the laws, inspired most lately by industries that have become addicted to this temporary monopoly for their very survival. Currently the term of copyright for a corporation is 95 years from day of publication or 120 years from date of creation, whichever comes first. For non-corporate authors the copyright lasts "life plus 70 " meaning 70 years PAST the authors death (like that's going to motivate him to create more). How in the world anyone can consider 120 years temporary in any sense of the word is beyond me. A man can be born, live a full 70 year life, die, his children can live full 70 year lives and die and in all that time the knowledge is still protected by copyright. In the eyes of the man and his children, thats forever, its certainly not temporary as specified in the constitution.
The perfect example of this insanity, you " ve heard of the current version of the TV show Star Trek called "Enterprise"? Well the copyright on that show won't expire until just about the time that the show takes place, the Enterprise will be a reality when the copyrights finally expire! What this means is that basically no copyrighted material published since 1907 would have had the copyright expire. Thats not really the case since the extensions were not in place in 1907 and some works have expired under the terms of the time. However if todays laws were in effect in 1907, No copyrighted knowledge in the past 95 years would have been added to the human knowledgebase upon which everyone may freely build.
Furthermore, with the addition of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, these copyright based industries are now trying to find ways to protect their business models using technology called "Copy protection"Activation" or "DRM, Digital Rights Management" instead of copyright to limit access to this knowledge thus extending the term of copyright effectively to infinity. They are in effect, doing their own law enforcement instead of relying on society to provide it. For some good history on this where copyright and patents originated I suggest you read a most excellent paper on the web The Purpose of Copyright by Lydia Pallas Loren. It is perhaps the best paper I've read on the subject. This extension of copyright duration is a threat against the very fabric of our civilization. What started out as a temporary monopoly that the public was willing to accept is now being assimilated into a business model designed to allow mega corporations to control this knowledge indefinitely.
It is in effect the creation of a new form of property instead of the temporary right our founding fathers had envisioned. The Danger In the copyright act of 1976, a fairly complete overhauling of our copyright laws was done to bring them up to date and in line with European copyright law, something the constitutional power granted to congress was designed to avoid. In bringing them in line with international standards we fell into a trap which goes counter to the ideals our country was founded under. To understand the danger you need a little history. In 1790, it was a different world.
Shipping printed books around the country could take months. In trying to decide a duration for copyright, congress most definitely had to take the speed of the economy into consideration. Back then the economy was very slow and they came up with a duration of 14 years with a possible extension to 28 years total duration. Now taking that into consideration, today's economy moves much faster. You can ship printed books half way around the planet overnight and electronic media is instantaneous. So taking that into consideration perhaps the copyright duration should be something shorter, maybe 4 - 5 years, maybe less.
Certainly the movie and software industries can make a "fair return" in that time. But instead of shorting copyright duration, the copyright act of 1976 lengthened it to bring it into compliance with other international copyright laws that were not intended to allow authors and inventors a fair return on their work but was instead created as a control mechanism with which speech, information, and ideas could be silenced. In 1995 copyright terms were lengthened again. In 1998 the Digital Millennium Copyright Act made it illegal to disable electronic protection mechanisms designed to protect copyrighted material. These electronic protections will effectively copyright the material as long as they are in existence, even beyond the legal copyright durations. All of these things point to an information based society that is increasingly being held hostage by industries that survive off the monopoly granted by copyright.
It is no longer about allowing authors and inventors a fair return on their work, it is now about "property" as these corporations view it and control over that "property." Copyright is not property, it is a temporary exclusive right. These corporations are not ever going to allow copyrights to expire, they cant its against their business models. Patents are also being used for control now, software patents threaten OSS software writers and can be used to eliminate competition. Why is this bad? Why not allow these corporations to exist via this business model? The best example would be Polaroid patents.
Polaroid was granted a patent on instant film cameras. They managed to renew and extend the effective term of this government granted monopoly on knowledge for the entire useful life of the instant film camera. From invention to the death of instant film cameras at the hands of digital photography, Polaroid was the only company who was allowed to market instant film cameras. Kodak tried at one point but Polaroid sued them and they had to withdraw their product from the market. As a result of this, the free market process was never allowed to have the expanding effect on this technology. Imagine all the missed opportunities for instant film technology and the price cuts that go along with competition in a free market.
Look at how many digital photography devices exist in just the short time that digital photography has been evolving, all this was missed because Polaroid was allowed to monopolize the instant film technology. Today in a more software oriented world, copyright takes the place of patents. Ask yourself why DOS or Windows 3. 1 needs 95 years copyright protection? Did the authors at Microsoft not make a reasonable return in the first few years?
Did you know the backspace key on your keyboard is patented? Did you know entry into the technology market is almost completely controlled via patent portfolios held by large companies like IBM who dictate the terms for licensing knowledge that has been around for well over 10 years in a market where the technology is obsolete after 5 years? As more and more knowledge is protected in this manner for longer and longer terms we will experience an entanglement of knowledge and technology that strangles the process of invention. In order to explain this entanglement danger you need to imagine if other more historic technologies had been protected for extended terms.
Lets pretend the following items were protected monopolies: The Wheel Glass The Light bulb Electricity The Magnet The Electric Motor Steel Can you imagine what a mess it would be to license all these technologies just to make a childs bicycle generator / light ? Also can you see the effect on society if there were only one light bulb company or one car company or one electricity company or one steel company because they chose not to license the technology to others but instead did as Polaroid did and kept the market to themselves? This is the danger, as more and more current knowledge is protected for longer and longer terms, the act of building upon that knowledge gets more and more entangled with past knowledge until the web of entanglement strangles the arts and sciences to the point where you just cant do anything anymore. Our markets are increasingly becoming affected by software and software copyrights.
Unlike Patents, Copyrights terms have already been extended to unreasonable time periods and as more of the economy is based on software products this will have a huge effect on us. This is why the constitution specifically said for a limited time and this is the point that seems to be lost on our current law makers. quote from the 1909 congress regarding music copyrights. web
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