Copyright metaphors

[Paul Rubin]

mertz at gnosis.cx (David Mertz, Ph.D.) writes:
> |Is it a worse metaphor than "the copyright bargain"?  That phrase has
> |been around for decades or centuries and is generally considered apt.
> 
> Hmmm... however many decades or centuries, I've never read that specific
> phrase before this thread.  I do have a Ph.D. in social philosophy, and
> have read moderately widely in legal opinions.  But I'm sure you're
> right that someone has used it (and have a particular interest in recent
> trends in abusive extension of IP law).

The phrase is used several times in the Eldred filings and in numerous
Supreme Court opinions.

> But I don't agree that copyrights were ever ethically defensible to
> start with; nor that they ever "advanced the progress of arts and
> science" as the US Constitution allows (as a limited possibility).

   http://www.baen.com/library/palaver4.htm 

has an important speech from the 1850's(?) on the subject, by the
English historian Thomas B. Macaulay who you might be familiar with.

The tension between copyright and individual freedom is certainly
stronger now than it was in the 1800's, for reasons RMS talks about in
his speeches.  In the 1800's, copying books (in enough volume to be a
problem for copyright holders) was only practical with a printing
press and a lot of typesetting work, making many copies of the same
book.  That meant copyright was more like an industrial relation than
today, where it controls what individuals can do in their own bedrooms
with their own computers.

Anyway, we live in interesting times.