PermaCopyright: a modest proposal.(crawford at large)(Mark Helprin)(Column)

Copyright lasts a long time--and some rightsholders want it to last even longer. Right now, at least in the U.S. and several other countries that have followed its lead, copyright lasts for the life of the creator plus 70 years. For copyrights held by an institution, it's a mere 95 years. Some of us guess that in another few years Disney and others will be back asking Congress to extend those terms for another 20 years.

That's not good enough for some people. They want to see permanent copyright. Three little words in the U.S. Constitution make that unlikely, barring an amendment. Those words are in the middle of the Constitutional basis for copyright and patent protection:

"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 ..." (emphasis added).

PARSING THE PROTECTION

Consider three aspects of that brief, potent wording:

Purpose: "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts." Not "to make the grandchildren of authors and inventors wealthy"--remuneration is not mentioned. Not "to prevent the creation of new creations based in part on existing creations"--you don't promote progress by preventing it. Not "to set a series of traps for unwary citizens through extraordinary penalties." I interpret "promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts" as "encourage creativity."

Length: "for limited Times." Not "forever on the installment plan." I find it hard to believe that the founders would have thought of lifetime plus 70 years as "limited," although technically it is.

Parties: "Authors and Inventors." Not "publishers and patent-holding companies." I won't get into the set of issues that annoy me about patent-holding companies, as it's beyond the scope of this column.

(Note: Most of this column appeared in a different form as portions …