Revisiting The Purpose Of The Copyright Monopoly: Science And The Useful Arts

> The second thing we note is the “science” part. The US Constitution only gives Congress the right to protect works of knowledge – educational works, if you like – with a copyright monopoly. “Creative works” such as movies and music are nowhere to be found whatsoever in this empowerment of Congress to create temporary government-sanctioned monopolies.

"Science" in the 18th century did not mean the same thing it does now. What we now call "science" would have been called "natural philosophy" back then. There was not much discussion of the copyright clause when the Constitution was being drafted, and the changes between drafts seem to have been more due to bikesheding than due to legal concerns.

The main intent of the copyright clause seems to have been to allow for a Federal law to provide a uniform replacement for the patchwork of common law and state law that was currently in effect. They didn't feel the need to specify in great deal exactly what types of works could be covered because that was implicitly the kind of works state and common law copyright covered.

From the very first Congress onward, Congress and the Supreme Court took this as basically being any work of authorship.