[Folloups were set to -legal only; please don't ignore that.] On Thu, Jan 30, 2003 at 10:30:38AM -0500, Bob Hilliard wrote: > On Tue, Jan 28, 2003 at 11:16:24PM -0500, Branden Robinson wrote: > > > Now, then, do > > you think Euclid held a copyright in the _Elements_? Did the apostles > > of Jesus hold a copyright in the gospels? If so, when did these > > copyrights expire, or have they? > > Neither the Ancient Greeks or Romans had copyright provisions in > their laws. Anyone was free to copy a work and sell the copies. In > both Athens and Rome there were thriving industries based on batteries > of slaves copying works for sale. The authors seemed to appreciate > the exposure thus given to their ideas. > > Euclid lived and worked in a Greek culture, under Greek laws. > The apostles lived and wrote in predominantly Greek cultures, under > Roman Laws. I think you're missing my point. If copyrights are natural rights, then ancient Greeks and Romans who authored creative works had those rights irrespective of whether recognition of those rights was codified in the laws governing them. If copyrights are not natural rights, then where there is no legal codification of such a concept, none can (legally) exist. -- G. Branden Robinson | Yesterday upon the stair, Debian GNU/Linux | I met a man who wasn't there. branden@debian.org | He wasn't there again today, http://people.debian.org/~branden/ | I think he's from the CIA.
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