Copyrights

I found Lessig’s lecture on copyrights and intellectual property to be very interesting. I had never considered the ramifications of patents and copyrights for original works before watching this video, but I think that it is an important topic. Lessig speaks about the Copyright or “Progress” clause that was placed in the Constitution to “promote progress of science and useful arts by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.” I think that it makes complete sense that the Constitution provides protection for intellectual property because without incentive for people to invent, society would lack many of the luxuries that we now take for granted. In the modern world where it is so easy to copy and redistribute someone else’s work, legal protection for innovators seems like a necessity. The problem is that, because these innovators and their families can now make such enormous profits from their work, they become greedy. The example that Lessig gives about Sunny Bono’s copyright extension after his death shows how these granted monopolies have turned into ways for families to profit from work that is not theirs. On the other hand, maybe it is the right of Bono’s family to reap the rewards of his success. While it does seem a bit ridiculous that the protection of Bono’s work has been extended even after his death, his work was his own and he should have rights to it. A compromise solution could include a shorter term of full protection with an extended period of royalties if the innovator decides to make his or her work public. Offering an incentive such as increased royalties or some form of compensation for innovators to remove full protection from their work could allow society to benefit more fully from their work, while still giving innovators reason to continue producing.