2 ms·
> I could just as easily say: Correct, the goal: "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts", i.e. encourage people to invent. No you can't, invention
by gnaritas 13y ago
> I could just as easily say: Correct, the goal: "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts", i.e. encourage people to invent.
No you can't, inventions that aren't public don't promote the progress of Science. Science is by it's very nature a public endeavor.
> My point is that it was left up to us as a society to interpret those words, and just claiming that your interpretation is the correct one does not make it so.
It is so because words have meaning and under no interpretation can promoting science simply mean to encourage invention because invention alone, without making the knowledge public, does not promote science.
- shasta 13y agoAnd by the symmetry of that clause in the constitution, I assume you believe copyright was included to get writers to divulge their writing.
- yawaramin 13y agoThere is no symmetry. Authorship is not in and of itself a science and therefore not an inherently public pursuit.
- dllthomas 13y agoCulture is an inherently public pursuit.
- JamesBlair 13y agoExcept that the exact phrasing is "useful Arts", which refers to documenting technical skills like manufacture and craftsmanship. The original legal climate with regard to fiction was heavily pro piracy. Not even Charles Dickens managed to make much of a dent in attitudes over a half century later.
- shasta 13y ago"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." So "useful arts" doesn't refer to writings? How about "writings"?
- officialjunk 13y agolol