The Purpose of Copyright Essay -- Property Laws

In today’s ever-accelerating world, we constantly find ourselves in a whirlwind of vague and complicated legal issues. Several of these relate specifically to something we encounter every time we listen to a song, look at a photograph, or read a book⎠¯copyrights. It appears that all these new controversies over copyrights and copyright infringement may be exaggerated or irrelevant. However, these issues pertaining copyright are neither irrelevant nor exaggerated, although this excessive attention constantly being drawn to it is certainly worth noting. The fact that copyrights are creating such an upheaval should not be attributed to over exaggeration. Instead, we must see this as a sign that copyrights as they are currently being maintained are in need of inspection and perhaps revision. Our excessive emphasis on claiming something as our property has caused copyright to act counter to its initial purpose. In order to best understand what the initial intention of copyrights was, it is necessary to look to where it is first expressed in our society. As it turns out, copyrights have been in place in our society since the crafting of the Constitution. Although there were several views as go how to best implement it, ultimately it was Thomas Jefferson’s notion of copyright that was most clearly incorporated into the Constitution. In it, it â€Å"†¦gives Congress the authority 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’† (Lethem 63). This inclusion of a copyright for authors and inventors had a clear purpose⎠¯to create an incentive for the mass of typically ordinary people to create and innovate. By securing a pa... ...ss. Carolan, Michael S. â€Å"Constructing the ‘pure’ inventor: individual, collective, and corporate authorship within patent law.† New Genetics and Society. 27.4: (301-310). Helprin, Mark â€Å"Digital Barbarism: A Writer’s Manifesto.† Harper: HarperCollins Publishers. Litman, Jessica â€Å"Creative Reading.† Khan, B. Zorina. â€Å"The Democratization of Invention: Patents and Copyrights in American Economic Development, 1790-1920.† Nber: Cambridge University Press. Lethem, Jonathan. â€Å"The Ecstasy of Influence: A plagiarism.† Harper’s Magazine. The Founders' Constitution, Volume 3, Article 1, Section 8, Clause 8, Document 12 http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/a1_8_8s12.html The University of Chicago PressThe Writings of Thomas Jefferson. Edited by Andrew A. Lipscomb and Albert Ellery Bergh. 20 vols. Washington: Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association, 1905.