🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <48185@netnews.upenn.edu> yee@mipgsun.mipg.upenn.edu (Conway Yee) writes:
>In article <1991Aug13.183216.19588@agate.berkeley.edu> jbuck@forney.berkeley.edu (Joe Buck) writes:
>>
>>I think that inventors should be rewarded, but granting them a state-enforced
>>monopoly for a couple of decades is a bit much.
>
>Doing away with patents is next to impossible.  One of the provisions of
>the Constitution is a requirement that Congress set up a patent and a 
>copyright system.  While the duration of the patent/copyright is not
>constitutionally determined, its existance certainly is.

This is false.

The Constitution gives Congress the right to set up a system to grant
patents and copyrights, but in no way requires it. There are powers
granted in the Constitution that are never exercised by Congress, hard
as that is to believe. An example is the right to grant letters of
marque and reprisal, which are no longer used.

Congress could decide tomorrow to stop the granting of patents and it
would be all as legal as anything else Congress does.

Perry Metzger
-- 
"Live Free or Die!"
Libertarian Party info: Phone 1-800-682-1776, E-Mail 345-5647@mcimail.com