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\f0\b\fs28 \cf0 Subject: 
\f1\b0 One Randian perspective on Eldred\

\f0\b Date: 
\f1\b0 Monday, November 18, 2002 5:49 PM\

\f0\b From: 
\f1\b0 Adam Victor Reed <[snip]>\

\f0\b To: 
\f1\b0 <Lessig@GO-AWAY-SFPAM-pobox.com>\
\

\f2 Since the article in Wired indicated that you understand Rand's view\
of moral trade, you may be interested in the following view, which I\
recently posted on the objectivism@wetheliving.com mailing list:\
\
**** START QUOTE ***\
\
The creator who sold or bequethed a copyright did so in the context of\
whatever the law was at that time. For example, the artist who sold\
his copyrights to Disney Corporation negotiated the price in\
accordance with what the law was at that time. What Disney Corporation\
purchassed was copyright for the term specified by law when it bought\
it. It cannot have an objective claim to what it did not buy, and since\
it did not buy copyright beyond the original term from the author,\
it cannot have an objective claim to any extension of copyright beyond\
the original term.\
\
Eric Eldred spent time and effort - a part of his irreplaceable,\
finite time on earth - editing for publication several early Robert\
Frost poems whose copyrights were due to expire. He did so knowing\
that when Robert Frost sold the copyright to those works, he did so\
expecting that the copyright will expire at the moment fixed by law.\
When selling the copyright, Robert Frost expected that after the\
original term expired, people like Eric Eldred would become free to\
disseminate those works to anyone who wanted to read them. The result\
of retroactive extension of copyright is to violate the original terms\
of the contract under which the copyright was sold - and to deprive\
Eric Eldred of the natural result of the work he had put in, in the\
reasonable expectation that those original terms will be honored.\
\
**** END QUOTE ***\
\
I teach Information Systems, so I have a personal stake on Eldred's\
side. In case the above contains anything that you did not already\
think of yourself, please feel free to use it any way you want to.\
[snip]\
\
Best regards,\
\
-- \
				Adam Reed\
				[snip]\
				 \
Context matters. Seldom does *anything* have only one cause.\
\
}