> The allowance for copyright law to exist in the USA is "To promote the Progres... | Hacker News

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		pathseeker on Sept 20, 2018 \| parent \| context \| favorite \| on: China Once Looked Tough on Trade. Now Its Options ... > The allowance for copyright law to exist in the USA is "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts"; with a similar intent to patents to eventually bring more quality things into the public domain. So yes, anything outside of that, regardless of invention of non-science/useful-arts, and regardless of profitability, is fair game. Can you give an example of what is outside of science and arts that you think is fair game?

white-flame on Sept 20, 2018 [–]

Not "arts", but "Useful Arts" which are things like industry skills & practices, a specific term from the time of writing.

An easy example would be the Happy Birthday song.

edit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Useful_arts

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