I'm sure many of you heard about this yesterday, but here is some
additional commentary on the Supreme Court's decision in Eldred v.
Ashcroft, in which they upheld the constitutionality of the Copyright Term
Extension Act.
ARLIS/NA was one of the library organizations that signed onto ALA's
amicus curiae brief filed in support of Eric Eldred's challenge to that
law. (http://www.arl.org/info/frn/copy/amici5_20_02.pdf)
James Mitchell
Co-Chair, Public Policy Committee
Librarian, American Folk Art Museum
Shirley K. Schlafer Library
45 West 53rd St.
New York, NY 10019
[log in to unmask]
(212) 265-1040 x110
[log in to unmask] writes:
>ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline
>Volume 12, Number 5
>January 16, 2003
>
>In This Issue: U.S. Supreme Court rules on constitutionality of
>Copyright Term Extension Act
>
>In a decision disappointing to the library community, the U.S. Supreme
>Court on January 15 upheld, by a vote of 7 to 2, the constitutionality
>of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act. The Act, passed by
>Congress in 1998, extends the copyright term for an additional 20 years,
>so that a commercially-produced work is now governed by the provisions
>of copyright law for 95 years; for an individual's work the term is
>"life of the author" plus 70 years.
>
>In Eldred v. Ashcroft, the Court held that Congress acted within its
>authority under the Constitution's Copyright Clause when it expanded the
>term of protection. The Court held that it "was not at liberty to
>second-guess congressional determinations and policy judgments of this
>order, however debatable or arguably unwise they may be." The Court
>also rejected arguments against the Act under the First Amendment. In
>doing so, Justice Ginsburg, writing for the majority, noted that the
>Copyright Act's "fair use" provision provides a "built-in" First
>Amendment accommodation. Two justices, Stevens and Breyer, filed
>separate dissenting opinions in which they expressed strong disagreement
>with the majority's holding.
>
>The opinions can be found at the following sites:
>Majority opinion by Justice Ginsburg:
>http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/lessig/blog/archives/01-618o.pdf
>Dissent by Justice Stevens:
>http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/lessig/blog/archives/01-618d.pdf
>Dissent by Justice Breyer:
>http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/lessig/blog/archives/01-618d1.pdf
>
>The five major national library associations and ten other groups had
>submitted an amici curiae (friend of the court) brief in support of the
>challengers to the Act. More about the case can be found on
>http://www.ala.org/washoff/eldred.html and
>http://www.arl.org/info/frn/copy/ctcases.html.
>
>
>
>
>******
>ALAWON (ISSN 1069-7799) is a free, irregular publication of the
>American Library Association Washington Office. All materials subject to
>copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or
>redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits.
>
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