[NMLUG] Re: legal music downloads?

[jfleck at inkstain.net (John Fleck)]

On Sat, 2004-07-31 at 13:29, Steve Milo wrote:
> It appears that many of you fail to realize that copyright is designed to
> protect the consumer. 

This is simply wrong. The constitution is explicit on this point - the
purpose of copyright is to encourage individuals to produce intellectual
works by giving them control over, and therefore the opportunity to
profit from, those works: "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 could
be argued that the "limited times" bit has been rather abused in recent
decades (see the Eldred case), but the intent protecting creators, not
consumers, is black letter law.

Cheers,
John