alternatehistory.com

Let's assume that butterflies during the Constitutional Convention make it so that hard temporal limits and strong protection of fair use are written in the US Constitution from the beginning. I.e., if I may pimp my own work for simplicity, quoting from the USAO Constitution

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times, not exceeding twenty-five years, to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries, providing for freedom of speech, of the press, scholarship, and similar Fair Use;

The Founding Fathers were never much keen with patent/copyright as a concept, so I see this divergence as fairly easy to accomplish.

IMO, as influential as the content industry may get during industry, it shall never have anywhere enough clout to get a constitutional amendment passed. So this limit shall stand to modern times, and as the USA grows into a superpower, shape the international standard.

What changes would this cause, come the Digital Age ?
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