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A comment on The last patent on AC-3 (Dolby Digital) expires at midnight. Parent comment

Re:The last patent on AC-3 (Dolby Digital) expires at midnight by kelnos on Monday March 20, 2017 @01:05AM (#13911845)
Note that the term "useful Arts" as used in the Constitution doesn't mean art as in performance or fine art, it means the same thing as if you were saying that something is "state of the art" -- methods of construction, craftmanship, or manufacture.

(Though you could probably say that copyrights might in some ways stifle people's artistic expression.)

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Re:The last patent on AC-3 (Dolby Digital) expires at midnight by incompatible on Monday March 20, 2017 @03:17AM (#13912359)
I suppose needing a license to be able to repeat any non-trivial part of anything that anyone has done over the last lifetime + 70 years could stifle artistic expression in some way. Who knows.
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