James Madison: The Father of the Constitution Favored Copyrights

Today is the birthday of James Madison, widely regarded as "The Father of the Constitution." The track record of Madison (March 16, 1751 – June 28, 1836) includes prompting the Philadelphia Convention of 1787, drafting the Constitution, explaining and supporting it in the Federalist Papers, leading the ratification effort in Virginia's state ratifying convention, implementing the Constitution in the First Congress, and managing the proposed Bill of Rights. Not to mention he served as the fourth U.S. President. 

Given Madison's vast contributions to early American political philosophy and constitutionalism, it is easy to overlook his important role in helping to secure copyright protections for American authors and other creative artists. Free State Foundation President and I described James Madison's role in putting copyright protections in the U.S. Constitution in our book, The Constitutional Foundations of Intellectual Property: A Natural Rights Perspective (Carolina Academic Press, 2015). We provided an abbreviated account of Madison's pro-copyright collaboration with Noah Webster in our November 2015 Perspectives from FSF Scholars, "The Copyright Alliance that Shaped Our Constitution." And we touched on Madison's understanding of property rights, including copyrights, in our September 2015 Perspectives, "Why Intellectual Property Rights Matter: The Founders Believed Ownership of One's Labor is a Natural Right."