> As one Senator said in voting against the [1888] bill [to recognize foreign copyrights]: “An international copyright is simply a monopoly … what is known as protection, or taxing the people to make a few persons rich … It seems to me that there can be no excuse for carrying this restriction upon human knowledge.”

It was a gradual process. Also, for context, it wasn't until the mid-late 1800s that private corporations were legitimized in the US. Corporate charters needed to specify what public interest they'd serve. Canal and railroad corporations were the first. And it wasn't that long before railroad corporations has bought the government. So it goes.