Article I, Section 8, Clause 3 of the United States Constitution, known as the Copyright Clause empowers the United States Congress:
- "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."
This is the only power granted to Congress for which the means to accomplish its stated purpose are specifically provided. The exact limitations of this clause have been defined through a number of United States Supreme Court cases interpreting the text. For example, the Court has determined that because the purpose of the clause is to promote progress, it can not be used in a way that would inhibit such progress. Because of this, the Court has developed the fair use doctrine to permit certain unauthorized uses of copyrighted material.
Furthermore, the clause only permits protection of the writings and discoveries of authors and inventors. Hence, writings may only be protected to the extent that they are original, and "inventions" must be truly inventive, and not merely obvious improvements on existing knowledge.
Although perpetual copyrights and patents are prohibited because the language specifies "limited times", the Supreme Court has ruled in Eldred v. Ashcroft (2003) that repeated extensions to the term of copyright do not constitute perpetual copyright.
