The Founders, the Constitution and Copyright

Of the many issues discussed at the Constitutional Convention, few were debated as vociferously as intellectual property. A glimpse into the disagreements over copyright can be found in the letters Thomas Jefferson sent James Madison. In the correspondences, Jefferson warns that “the benefit of even limited monopolies is too doubtful."

Jefferson recognized, as many modern day economists and legal scholars do, that ideas and expression were non-rivalrous resources. Jefferson once mused,

"He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine receives light without darkening me."

That is, unlike a bicycle or chair, whose use precludes use by others, expression is not harmed by varied application. In fact, certain forms of resources, such as a language, become more valuable with every person's use.

Madison disagreed with the possible dangerous posed by intellectual property rights. In Federalist Paper #43, Madison stated that "the public good fully coincides" with copyright. In the end, his position was eternalized in the Constitution of the United States.

Article One, Section Eight, Clause Eight gives Congress the duty 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..."

This was codified in the Copyright Act of 1790 which gave authors and certain other creators the right to be the exclusive provider of their works for 14 years (renewable for another 14 if they so desired).