I recently ran across these words about copyright from Paul Rahe:
" . . the Framers embedded within the country's constitution a clause stipulating that Congress provide for copyrights and patents — which is to say, that they endorsed the notion of intellectual property. But here is the kicker. They did so for only a limited term. Their purpose was to encourage innovation, to reward inventors and authors, and ease their inventions and writings into the public domain with reasonable alacrity — so that they could be of benefit to all.The aim of the entertainment industry is to maximize profits, and they have pushed again and again for the extension of copyright. That they have succeeded time and again in the last few decades is a sign of their power. But the truth is that, in repeatedly extending copyright, Congress is denying to the rest of us what is rightly ours: works that, until recently, would have found their way into the public domain."
Paul A. Rahe holds The Charles O. Lee and Louise K. Lee Chair in the Western Heritage at Hillsdale College, where he is Professor of History.
Ronald Richard Duquette says
Joseph Singer says