Re: [dvd-discuss] [OT] Model for copyright?

["Michael A Rolenz" <Michael.A.Rolenz(at)aero.org>]

Earlier I had stated that Madison believed that copyright was a kind of 
reward. HEre is the reference I couldn't remember at the time I wrote it.

From the Historian Amicus brief at 
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/openlaw/eldredvashcroft/supct/amici/historians.pdf

Many years later, in a manuscript published after his
death, Madison summed up his views as follows:

Monopolies though in certain cases useful ought
to be granted with caution, and guarded with
strictness against abuse. The Constitution of the
U.S. has limited them to two cases, the authors
of Books, and of useful inventions, in both which
they are considered as a compensation for a
benefit actually gained to the community as a
purchase of property which the owner otherwise
might withhold from public use. There can be no
just objection to a temporary monopoly in these
cases; but it ought to be temporary, because under
that limitation a sufficient recompense and
encouragement may be given. . . . 76