Re: Time for the Recording Industry to Face the Music

People have a Constitutional right (and a moral one too) to be

> compensated for their creative efforts.

Wow! That's a wild interpretation of the Constitution.

You know, by writing this message, I have just made a creative effort. Where the hell's my check!?

In fact, nobody has a Constitutional right to be compensated just because they wrote a song. If they did, there would be a lot fewer out-of-work song writers in the world.

What the Constitution /really/ says is that Congress has the power "[t]o 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".

Authors certainly don't have the right to get compensated; they only have the right to prevent OTHER people from publishing or using their work. And they only have that right for a limited time, and only if Congress grants it to them, which it has the power to, but is under no Constitutional obligation to do. In fact, Congress only has that power if it finds that doing so will promote the "useful arts".

That's a far cry from "everyone has a right to get paid".

Reply to
John Smith
Loading thread data ...

Cabling-Design.com Forums website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.