I think that's getting things backwards. The goal in the Constitution is "to promote the progress of science and useful arts" so IMO the goal has always been th

I think that's getting things backwards. The goal in the Constitution is "to promote the progress of science and useful arts" so IMO the goal has always been the advancement of culture and sciences by allowing a brief period of protected money making followed by releasing the idea to be used by other people. Imagine how much slower we would advance if patents were given the same Life + 70 years. No invention that comes out in your lifetime would be accessible to be iterated on without paying the inventor in your or your kids lifetimes! That's where we are with copyrights and there were decades where no new works entered the public domain because of how long extensions were granted. 1925 works are just now entering the public domain. > [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.”