Re: [dvd-discuss] Eldred Amicus

["Roy Murphy" <murphy(at)panix.com>]

'Twas brillig when Steve Hosgood scrobe:
> Jolley <tjolley@swbell.net> wrote:
> > The answer for an upper limit could be in the constitution.
> >   ...by securing for limited Times to Authors...
> > Anything granted beyond an author's lifetime
> > is being granted to someone else.
>   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> 
> That's the neatest observation I've seen for a while! There must be 
> some way to draw the court's attention to it.

It's a doomed argument.  SCOTUS gives special consideration to the acts 
of the First Congress.  Since the members of that Congress were largely 
the same people who wrote the Constitution, the Court presumes that 
their actions were constitutional.  Since the First Congress passed the 
1790 Copyright act with a 14 year term (and a 14 year extension upon 
renewal if the author is still alive and renews), terms exceeding the 
lifespan of the author are presumptively constitutional.
 
-- 
Roy Murphy      \ CSpice -- A mailing list for Clergy Spouses
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