Good luck with that. Patents and copyrights are codified in the US Constitution, specifically Article I, Section 8, Clause 8: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Clause
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Licensing for the MP3 Format Used on Original iPod is Officially 'Terminated' as Patents Expire
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I wasn't the only one downloading Essential Mix's and playing with WinAmp then!
Yup this is what I do also. I also dabbled in AIFF, but found a lot of my devices do not support it.
You're missing the point of patents.
In the absence of patents, someone who invents something novel must keep its design a closely guarded secret. Otherwise someone else (maybe quite a lot of others) will copy it and flood the market, making it impossible for the inventor to recoup his development costs.
By keeping the design secret, he's being just a monopolistic, but the rest of the world may never find out his secret.
With patents, the inventor is granted a legal monopoly for a fixed amount of time, in exchange for publishing his designs. So everybody knows the secrets, and once the time expires, everybody can benefit from that research.
I think it can be a meaningful discussion about whether the current duration (20 years from the first filing date) is too long, or if some thing (like software) should have shorter durations. I also believe that people who did not invent something and are not manufacturing it should not have the right to use patents to attack everybody else (e.g. patent trolls.)
But that having been said, I think it is very naive to assume, that the entire concept of patents should be eliminated. That would force inventors to go back to using trade secrets and would slow the rate of innovation in the marketplace.
The constitution is a piece of paper that protects exactly zero people. No matter who is in charge, the government does what they want when they want with no consequences.
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I didn't say they weren't expedient. I just think they're inherently wrong. And you're implying that trade secrets are not in use at all anymore?
Of course trade secrets are used. But (with respect to the public at large) they are an inferior solution to the problem.
With a patent, the knowledge eventually must become public because the inventor must disclose everything as a part of the patent application.
With a trade secret, the knowledge may remain secret forever. It may even disappear altogether if the inventor dies without passing it to another person. And if someone should steal the secret, the inventor has no legal recourse against the thief (unless it was stolen by someone who has signed a non-disclosure agreement, like an employee.)