Women in Technology

Article:		Eldred Opinion Met with Anger, Determination
Subject:		Trumping the Congress.
Date:		2003-01-20 10:18:39
From:		steadj
Its seems that it's the hope of everyone who doesn't get their way in the normal law making process that some higher authority will discard the decisions of the elected ones. Considering that the only applicable Constitutional language, in Article 1 Section 8, says: "The Congress shall have power ... To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;" It would be quite the stretch for the Court to say the Congress overstepped its bounds. Even 1,000 years would be a limit. The Court's role is not to rule on the good sense of the Congress. Those of us who want to remove people's rights to their creations should get on the phone to our Representatives. Jim

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• Trumping the Congress.
  2003-01-29 12:51:07  anonymous2 [View]
  
  
  First I agree with one thing in "steadj"'s post, that some groups that won't get their desires in elections or lobbying will go to the courts, or try even an elected voters-be-damned subterfuge.
  
  Second, I'll agree that the relevant Constitutional passage gives a purpose clause ("..To promote the progress of science and useful arts,.."), and an operational clause: "..by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;..".
  
  Where I would say that both Congress and the US Supreme Court have erred in their justification for this outrage is in turning a blind eye to that all-important word included in the operational phrase: "limited". In the interpretation of the effect of this word in the meaning of the "operational phrase" to a test of the law, that is where the "purpose clause" should have been considered, if they were so idiotic as to think that "limited" just means you can keep on renewing it.
  
  Maybe they were all victims of a Duracell commercial: they think that copyrights were meant to keep going, and going, and going...