Intellectual Property... Who's Property?

The intellectual property rights system in the United States needs to change. They need to change for software. They need to change for music and literature as well. The Constitution, Section 8, Article 1 states, "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." The founders of the United States intended for the government to promote the progress the sciences and the arts. They also intended for discoveries and inventions to have limited exclusive rights to the authors and inventors. Breaking this down, the laws of intellectual property need to be balanced between the promotion of the society's innovations and the benefit of the authors' and inventors' ingenuity.