Re:The Constution says nothing about copyright (Score 1)

Aricle 1 section 8 gives Congress the power to grant copyright and patent protection, as you said, "if they choose to do so." It doesn't say what those rights actually are, or enumerate which rights are accorded the author vs. the public.

So yes, I was overly broad in claiming the constitution says "nothing" about copyright and was being juvenile in using word search results to try to make my point--my bad. A law granting authors copyright in perpetuity would be clearly unconstitutional, for example.

The right of First Sale, however, would only be "constitutional" (as claimed by the author to which I was responding) to the extent that First Sale "promote[s] the Progress of Science and useful Arts," which is by no means explicitly specified or necessarily a given. In this case, the specific constitutional language gives congress authority to limit rights, it doesn't specifically protect any public right apart from the general promotion of progress.

And all that said, yes, I do know that First Sale on the part of the public is an established part of Copyright, and personally agree with everyone who wants to see that protected when it comes to DRM. I just don't think you can claim it's a right protected by the constitution per se. I think people are too quick to wave around the word "unconstitutional" every time rights are involved.