[the United States Congress shall have power] To promote the Progress of
Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and
Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.
This is interesting because it establishes that the purpose of copyright is to "promote the progress of science and useful arts." Having said that, in my opinion, with respect to the spirit of the law, abandonware, ophaned software, and very obsolete software, where the exercise of the copyright is not providing any benefit to anybody, should be completely allowed, as it maximizes the benefit to society... Which seems to be the case in practice, normally (look at archive.org and their emulated software libraries, which are fantastic).
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