[Upd-discuss] a longer term strategy for promoting thepublicdomain?

[Jay Sulzberger]

On Sat, 21 Aug 2004, David Basskin wrote:

> "Our" goals? Sorry, I must have been out of the room when the Kool-Aid was 
> being served.
>
> What a startling exercise in thought-policing your glossary is! Songwriters 
> and music publishers who depend on copyright to protect their right to 
> control the use of their works, and to be compensated for such use, would 
> find your point of view absurd and offensive ... but at least we don't try to 
> say that you shouldn't hold such thoughts.

Of course, there is no general "right to control the use of their works"
granted to copyright holders.  Copyright is a system of government created
limited monopolies for special purposes.  Copyright does not grant the
copyright holder legal power to dictate what private use I make of a copy
inside my house.  Nor does copyright law stop me from reproducing and
distributing a copyrighted work, if I must in order to speak freely and
precisely of the work.

ad diction: Is it your position that, generally, we need not distinguish
copyrights from patents?  In careful discourse should we distinguish
copyrights from patents?  Does the CMRRA distinguish between copyrights and
patents?

oo--JS.