Economist magazine has a great story on Larry Lessig and his attack on copyright extensions link here. Because the article is open, I will not try to summarize it. But the subhead conveys the essence of what Lessig is up to: "Copyrights will not expire so long as Congress is free to be bought to extend them again."

His approach is refreshing. He doesn't oppose copyright but rests his case on the constitution which allows a monopoly limited in time. He argues that in practice there is no limit. Since his appeal to the courts failed to get one, he has chosen the political route, to force legislators to enact one.

Murray N. Rothbard used to point out that the State uses its power to the hilt--if you give it an inch, it will take a mile. And then another mile. That is what has happened with copyright--11 extensions in forty-odd years or so. All for the best of rent-seeking and public choice reasons. Here's some money, Congressman Cash and Senator Snort, now vote for a longer copyright law.

This will go on and never stop unless and until the battle is joined at another level. That's where the abolitionists take the field and point out the the copyright emperor has no clothes. That copyright is not consistent with property rights or natural rights, and indeed is antithetical to these institutions. That copyright impedes innovation, just as noncompete clauses and all other attempts to create monopolies do.

He who says copyright must ineluctably say monopoly as well as corruption and rent seeking. I wish Lessig well fighting political corruption, but he's whistling in the dark and will continue to do so until he figures out that copyright should go the way of all monopolies. The article quotes his insight in Eldred that "copyrights have not expired, and will not expire, so long as Congress is free to be bought to extend them again." Mark Twain pointed out that Congress is America's only native criminal class. I submit it would be a lot easier to abolish the institution of copyright than to stop a criminal organization of 535 entrenched robbers from continuing their highway robbery.

So draw a line in the sand. On one side are Lessig and the reformers. On the other are the abolitionists, the heirs of Cobden and Bright, and of Garrison and Phillips. Take your pick.