Re: [dvd-discuss] Eldred Amicus

[microlenz(at)earthlink.net]

On 31 May 2002 at 23:37, John V. Martinez wrote:

> 
> Dean Sanchez wrote:
> 
> >Seth,
> >
> >I found the floppy; unfortunately, it is corrupted and unrecoverable.  I had
> >originally used a set of volumes (books, imagine that!) that had his writings
> >and communications.  I no longer have access to them; however, I have found a
> >number of web sites devoted to the same thing.    I will have to research
> >Jefferson's writings and get back to you.  As I remember, I think it was in a
> >portion of his writings when he was discussing monopolies.  Probably after 1788
> >as prior to this time he was quite adamant in his opposition to any (government
> >sanctioned) monopoly.
> >
> 
> Dean: if you still have the floppy, I have access to some equipment 
> which might be able to retrieve the data. You can reply to me directly 
> by email if you'd be willing to send me the disk so I can give it a try...
> 
> 
> I've been doing some googling, trying to find the passages Dean referred 
> to. I haven't found them yet, but  I did turn up a couple of interesting 
> quotes, such as:
> 
> 1) jefferson proposing that the "right" copyright term be set relative 
> to human life spans, because "the earth belong to the living"
> 
> _Fourth_, another hotly debated issue during the drafting stage of both 
> the Copyright Clause of the Constitution and Copyright Act of 1790 was 
> the duration of copyright.  Initially duration was to be based on the 
> average life span of authors. Thus under the Copyright Act of 1790, the 
> duration of copyright was set at 14 years with the possibility of 
> renewal for another 14 years _if_ the author was still alive.  *Thomas 
> **Jefferson* based a proposed term for copyright on the principle that 
> "the earth belongs in usufruct to the living", and computed it by means 
> of actuarial tables:
> 
> Generations, changing daily by daily deaths and births, have one 
> constant term, beginning at the date of their contract, and ending when 
> a majority of those of full age at that date shall be dead. The length 
> of that term may be estimated from tables of mortality [and is found to 
> be] 18 years 8 months, or say 19 years as the nearest integral 
> number...  The principle, that the earth belongs to the living, and not 
> to the dead, is of very extensive application... Turn this subject in 
> your mind, my dear Sir... and develop it with that perspicuity and 
> cogent logic so peculiarly yours...  Establish the principle... in the 
> new law to be passed for protecting copyrights and new inventions, by 
> securing the exclusive right for 19 instead of 14 years. (*Jefferson*, 
> /Letter to James Madison/, September 6, 1789)   
> 

That's actually quite an incredible proposal. By basing it upon actuarial 
tables, Jefferson is proposing a formula for not just the copyright of his time 
but others as well. If the argument that copyright terms need to be extended as 
authors live longer AND people have longer lifetimes that the work is still of 
some use later in their lives, then basing the term upon actuarial tables and 
setting some statistical confidence for when a sufficient number should have 
achieved that. This is an incredible statement involving the use of statistics 
well in advance of his day but also a statement of social engineering of a 
dynamic population.

> 
> cached by google at
> 
> http://216.239.39.100/search?q=cache:-DEEEOEDW5wC:www.culturaleconomics.atfreewe
> b.com/cpu_c.htm+thomas+jefferson+monopoly+printing+cost&hl=en
> 
> OH! found original source of the above quote:
> http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mtj:@field(DOCID+@lit(tj060008))
> 
> This last link is the longest quote, and makes an interesting point: he 
> argues, in effect, that no generation has the moral right to incur 
> debts, grant titles, monopolies, etc. that burden the next generation 
> (or, more precisely, that the next generation has no moral obligation to 
> honor such debts, titles, etc, because if they did, the living would not 
> be ruling themselves, 

Makes me wonder what he would have thought about Napster?

>but would instead be ruled by the dead.) He goes 
> on to say that the "natural" term of a law is then 19 years (based on 
> actuarial calculations of the lifetime of a generation,) and argues that 
> such a time limit be placed on laws, because even though, in a perfect 
> world, a new generation takes over every 19 years and can thus repeal 
> laws they no longer wish to be bound by, various forms of corruption and 
> entrenched private interests will generally obstruct such repeal.
> 
> He says it far better than I could:
> 
> >     It may be said that the succeeding generation exercising in fact
> >     the power of repeal, this leaves them as free as if the
> >     constitution or law had been expressly limited to 19. years only.
> >     In the first place, this objection admits the right, in proposing
> >     an equivalent. But the power of repeal is not an equivalent. It
> >     might be indeed if every form of government were so perfectly
> >     contrived that the will of the majority could always be obtained
> >     fairly and without impediment. But this is true of no form. The
> >     people cannot assemble themselves; their representation is unequal
> >     and vicious. Various checks are opposed to every legislative
> >     proposition. Factions get possession of the public councils.
> >     Bribery corrupts them. Personal interests lead them astray from
> >     the general interests of their constituents; and other impediments
> >     arise so as to prove to every practical man that a law of limited
> >     duration is much more manageable than one which needs a repeal.
> >
> 
> also:
> 
> 2)
> 
> "The saying there shall be no monopolies lessens the incitements to 
> ingenuity, which is spurred on by the hope of a *monopoly* for a limited 
> time, as of fourteen years; but the benefit of even limited monopolies 
> is too doubtful to be opposed to that of their general suppression." 
> --Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1788. ME 7:98
> 
> from http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/jefferson/quotations/jeff1320.htm
> 
> 
> The latter web site, by the way, is a great source of Jeferson quotes, 
> in general.
> 
> 
> -(-- John V. Martinez
> 
>