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A comment on Why does Amazon have more books from the 1880s than the 1980s? Blame copyright. Parent comment

Re:Why does Amazon have more books from the 1880s than the 1... by anigbrowl on Wednesday July 31, 2013 @04:52PM (#6136760)
Narrowly read, an Author or Inventor would retain exclusive rights and would only be allowed to grant a temporary and nonexclusive grant of that right to others.

An excellent argument.

Likewise, when the standard copyright term exceeds the median human lifetime, the 'limited time' effectively becomes 'forever.' One of the few things I like about the patent system is that the term is 20 years, which is a reasonable period of exclusivity for a genuinely patentable idea (vs. the abusive attempt to patent the obvious or prior art for litigation purposes).

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Re:Why does Amazon have more books from the 1880s than the 1... by dredmorbius on Wednesday July 31, 2013 @10:39PM (#6138321)
> when the standard copyright term exceeds the median human lifetime, the 'limited time' effectively becomes 'forever.'

The Supreme Court has, unfortunately, ruled otherwise.

Lessig, in his retrospective on the Eldred case (term limits extension suit that went to SCOTUS) feels he should have focused on the promotion rather than limited terms clause.

Coulda shoulda woulda. Thanks for trying anyway, Larry.

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Re:Why does Amazon have more books from the 1880s than the 1... by DannyBee on Wednesday July 31, 2013 @10:59PM (#6138391)
Larry should have let a more experienced SCOTUS lawyer argue about it, but he also realized that in his retrospective too :(
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