Posted by KatNip on September 18, 1998 at 01:12:45:
In Reply to: "common law copyright"? posted by Paul Andrew Mitchell, B.A., M.S. on September 17, 1998 at 20:21:31:
Did I miss something?:-) your response post
did not address the question...what is a
"common law copyright"?
: Confer at "common law" in the Seventh Amendment.
: Moreover:
: "Congress ... cannot by legislation alter the
: Constitution, from which alone it derives its
: power to legislate, and within whose limitations
: alone that power can be lawfully execised."
: See Eisner v. Macomber, U.S. Supreme Court
: [holding predicated on meaning of "income"
: in the so-called 16th amendment]
: Confer also at "Copyright" ("attempted to abolish")
: and "Common-law copyright" in Black's Law
: Dictionary, Sixth Edition.
: But, Congress cannot abolish the common law,
: because it is preserved expressly by the
: Seventh Amendment. See also FRCP Rule 38,
: in pari materia with the Seventh Amendment,
: where the Right to jury trials in federal civil
: cases is preserved "inviolate" [sic].
: Thus, a state Citizen's Right to invoke the
: common law is a fundamental Right, because
: it is guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.
: Confer at "Fundamental rights" in Black's
: Law Dictionary, Sixth Edition. Under the
: Downes Doctrine, state Citizens do have
: standing to invoke the common law.
: The meaning of "common law" as used in the
: Seventh Amendment can only be amended by
: three-fourths of the several states, and
: it has never been amended since the Bill of
: Rights was first ratified. Thus, it retains
: the meaning it had when it first became
: supreme Law.
: Compare also U.C.C. 1-207.
: Consequently, the Right to invoke the common
: law is not alienable by Congress nor by the
: federal judiciary.
:
: /s/ Paul Andrew Mitchell, B.A., M.S.