2026-09-28 19:23 UTC
Fun fact: there are only two clauses in the Constitution that include a rationale: the Second Amendment ("A well regulated Militia") and the copyright clause ("To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts"). Everything else is one of those "truths" that the framers "held to be self-evident." In these two cases, they decided to explain their thinking.
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Replies (1)
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@pluralistic@mamot.fr 2026-09-28 19:23
So the point of copyright is to incentivize investment in creative works, and its mechanism is a set of limited rights over those works, for limited times. Copyright expires, and it is subject to "limitations and exceptions," including "fair use," a very broad set of highly situational rights to use works even if the rightsholder objects: https://pluralistic.net/2026/02/07/aimsters-revenge/#effective-means-of-access-control 5/