Z:gnu-www-ja-eldred-amicus--e5ed39-The Framers of the Constitutio/en

The Framers of the Constitution unanimously accepted the idea of the limited term for copyrights in the drafting of Article I, without substantial discussion. See 2 Max Farrand, The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, at 321-325, 505-510, 570, 595 (1937). [2]  In doing so, as the subsequent employment in the Copyright Act of 1790 of the term of years from the Statute of Monopolies shows, the Framers and the First Congress acted in full awareness of the long history of attempts to control the harm done by statutory monopolies by limiting their term.