The historical purpose of copyright is utilitarian in nature. The Constitution says nothing about monetary incentive, however, this notion of incentive is based on the framer's intent to promote further creation. From the framers' standpoint an informed public was essential to bolstering the representative democracy they were strugging to create and maintain, you could only keep an informed public through the creation of literary works, etc. The problem, however, was the framers were afraid these works would not be created and the flow of information would be hindered if there were no monetary incentive to create. In order to better serve the public good, the exclusive rights associated with copyright (see the Copyright Act of 1976 for a full list of all rights granted to a copyright holder--not just the rights to compensation or reproduction) were created to ensure those who labored to create would be adequately compensated. Compensation would lead to more creation and a better informed public. I do not feel that compensation is the only or most important incentive to encourage creation, but I feel that the history behind the monetary incentive is important to note for this discussion.
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The historical purpose of copyright is utilitarian in nature. The Constitution says nothing about monetary incentive, however, this notion of incentive is based on the framer's intent to promote further creation. From the framers' standpoint an informed public was essential to bolstering the representative democracy they were strugging to create and maintain, you could only keep an informed public through the creation of literary works, etc. The problem, however, was the framers were afraid these works would not be created and the flow of information would be hindered if there were no monetary incentive to create. In order to better serve the public good, the exclusive rights associated with copyright (see the Copyright Act of 1976 for a full list of all rights granted to a copyright holder--not just the rights to compensation or reproduction) were created to ensure those who labored to create would be adequately compensated. Compensation would lead to more creation and a better informed public. I do not feel that compensation is the only or most important incentive to encourage creation, but I feel that the history behind the monetary incentive is important to note for this discussion.