Z:gnu-www-ja-misinterpreting-copyright--25a5c7-The Constitution authorizes gr/en

The Constitution authorizes granting copyright powers to authors. In practice, authors typically cede them to publishers; it is usually the publishers, not the authors, who exercise these powers and get most of the benefits, though authors may get a small portion. Thus it is usually the publishers that lobby to increase copyright powers. To better reflect the reality of copyright rather than the myth, this article refers to publishers rather than authors as the holders of copyright powers. It also refers to the users of copyrighted works as &ldquo;readers,&rdquo; even though using them does not always mean reading, because &ldquo;the users&rdquo; is remote and abstract.