The current law is also against the spirit of the constitution. When it was written, the "limited" was taken to mean something like 14 years. Allow for the fact that in these times publications took forever to circulate, without trucks or interstate highways.
> In Congress’s first Copyright Act of 1790, as under the Statute of Anne, copyright persisted for 14 years, with the possibility of a 14-year renewal term.
> Under current law, copyright in a work created by an individual author lasts for the life of that author, plus an additional 70 years.
Yeah, we should've been shortening terms as technology eased production/distribution rather than lengthening them. For patents too, though at least those didn't end up as outlandishly long as copyright.
> In Congress’s first Copyright Act of 1790, as under the Statute of Anne, copyright persisted for 14 years, with the possibility of a 14-year renewal term.
> Under current law, copyright in a work created by an individual author lasts for the life of that author, plus an additional 70 years.
https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artI-S8-C8-3-...