[LINK] Content monopolies

[bscott at gtlaw.com.au]

There's no magic to statutory monopoly.  Statutory is just an adjective.
What it means is that (a) it's a monopoly and (b) the source of that
monopoly is a statute (in this case the Copyright Act 1968 as amended). The
monopoly in question is the right (among others) to make a reproduction of
a work, an exclusive right which vests in the holder of copyright.

Property law is also a monopoly. If I own a pen I have the exclusive right
to deal with that pen to the exclusion of all others. The reason I refer to
a pen analogy is that it is still a monopoly even though the monopoly is on
a small scale (as opposed, for example, to a monopoly over oil production
or mail services).

The difference between property and legislative content monopolies (such as
copyright) is that property rights exist independent of legislation (ie
they exist at common law) but content monopolies like copyright don't.  If
all legislation was repealed tomorrow it would still be against the law for
someone to deal with my pen contrary to my wishes (because property exists
at common law), but I would not have any ability to prevent other people
making reproductions of (eg) this email (because copyright is a creature of
statute and we've assumed all statues have been repealed).

Brendan

(iaalbtinla)




                                                                                                                       
                      Howard Lowndes                                                                                   
                      <lannet at lannet.co        To:       "Chirgwin, Richard" <Richard.Chirgwin at informa.com.au>         
                      m.au>                    cc:       link at anu.edu.au                                               
                      Sent by:                 Subject:  RE: [LINK] DCMA note (was democracy after it was Al-Jazeera)  
                      link-bounces at anu.                                                                                
                      edu.au                                                                                           
                                                                                                                       
                                                                                                                       
                      01/04/03 09:15 AM                                                                                
                                                                                                                       
                                                                                                                       




On Tue, 1 Apr 2003, Chirgwin, Richard wrote:

> I stand partly corrected, Brendan.
> > You don't need to register copyright in the US (any more).
> No, but the courts look to registration as the primary evidence. The
> copyright office's Website in the US says:
> >Before an infringement suit may be filed in court, registration
> >is necessary for works of U. S. origin.
>
> So OK, I was sloppy but not entirely wrong! :-)
>
> > Also, copyright is a statutory monopoly in Australia, not a
> > "common law
> > right" per Donaldson v Beckett (1774)

So would I if I knew what a "statutory monopoly" was.  It sounds more like
an organisation such as Australia Post, Air Services Australia, et al, but
probably means something entirely different.

>
> Oops. OK, I'll take the lawyer's word on that!
>
> > the US
> > government doesn't claim copyright over material that has
> > been produced
> > with taxpayer dollars.
>
> Ok; but there are reasons for claiming copyright that don't have to do
with
> claiming money, merely a requirement to associate a document with its
> author.
>
> Richard Chirgwin
>
> _______________________________________________
> Link mailing list
> Link at mailman.anu.edu.au
> http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
>

--
Howard.
LANNet Computing Associates - Your Linux people <http://www.lannetlinux.com
>
------------------------------------------
Flatter government, not fatter government - Get rid of the Australian
states.
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I before E except after C. We live in a weird society!

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