``Economic benefit'' a time bomb?

Posted Aug 23, 2008 0:55 UTC (Sat) by giraffedata (guest, #1954)
In reply to: ``Economic benefit'' a time bomb? by Max.Hyre
Parent article: Why the JMRI decision matters

What happened to a copyright being the right to prevent copying, period.

What happened to it? It just never existed. Who told you it did? There isn't much in modern law that is just an absolute no-questions-asked rule. Laws have roots in reason and as Jon says, for US copyright law, those roots are economic incentive. So yes, courts will always go back to that when interpreting copyright law. They don't want a law to turn into some monster that does things it was never intended to do.