Chapter 5. Inside the Sausage: The Making of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act

 

The Congress shall have Power...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.

 
 --United States Constitution, Article I, Section 8

The fountainhead of copyright law in the United States is this statement. It comes early in the Constitution and stands in august company along with other declarations relating to levying taxes, coining money, building roads, and waging war. Before penning this statement, the founding fathers debated long and hard over what “exclusive rights to writings and discoveries” should cover and how long those rights should ...

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