"limited Times" Explained
Limited Times, LLC is the name of our company, the home of the Durationator. But why? Copyright (and patents, too) are protected for "limited Times," thanks to Article I, Section 8, Clause 8 of the U.S. Constitution. Because of I.8.8, Congress is charged with making copyright laws, but there are parameters and limitations. One of them is "limited Times." Here is the full clause:
"To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries."
What does that mean? It means that copyright protection is a bargain. A work, upon its creation, receives copyright protection for a limited time, and then the work comes into the public domain. What is the public domain? It is our cultural commons -- the space where works are freely available for everyone to use without restriction.
But, for how long does a work receive copyright protection? What is the duration of its copyright? The answer to this question oftentimes can be quite difficult to determine. The Durationator was built specifically to respond to this problem, providing a means to accurately and efficiently determine a work's copyright status.
Do you have works for which you want to know their copyright status, whether they are under copyright or in the public domain? Contact us at info@durationator.com and let our Team Durationator experts go to work making these determinations for you.
