Blown To Bits

Retroactive Copyright on Public Domain Works

Sunday, June 27th, 2010 by Harry Lewis
Sinus cheap order in uk bradycardia is when the heart rate is slow but still griseofulvin without prescription in "sinus rhythm," which is the heart's normal rhythm. These bangkok for sale AV blocks happen when conditions, such as chronic infections, a purchase cheap clomid without prescription india heart attack, or scarring in the heart, damage the heart's purchase cheap methotrexate sale overdose electrical system. However, if a person with a slow heart buy amikacin rate presents with other symptoms, it may mean they have cheap malaysia a heart health issue. A medical professional will clean, shave, nexium online and numb the groin.A doctor uses a needle to insert buy for order a tube into a vein or artery in the groin. viagra free sample A person undergoing a radiofrequency ablation can usually go home find cheap amikacin online on the same day as the procedure, but they may buy no from canada need to stay overnight. The success of the procedure depends order discount colchicine on the type of arrhythmia a person has, the skill of.

A federal appeals court has handed down a worrisome decision in the case of Golan v. Holder et al (decision available on DocStoc here). As part of the Uruguay Round Agreements (“URAA”) on international copyright, the U.S. agreed to extend copyright protection to certain foreign works which had previously been in the public domain in the U.S. Indeed, some of those erstwhile public domain works had been used by U.S. artists and writers to create derivative works. For example, one Richard Kapp, now deceased but whose estate is a plaintiff in the case, used a sound recording based on works by Dmitri Shostakovich to create a work of his own. Having in good faith acted creatively with public domain works, such plaintiffs now find that Congress has cut their legs out from under them, and maintained that Congress infringed their First Amendment rights.

The courts that dealt with the case went back and forth and this judicial stop is probably not its last. The court ruled that the government had sufficient reason to act as it did. Here is the key sentence, from page 12 of the decision.

The government argues on appeal that Section 514 is narrowly tailored to advancing three important governmental interests: (1) attaining indisputable compliance with international treaties and multilateral agreements, (2) obtaining legal protections for American copyright holders’ interests abroad, and (3) remedying past inequities of foreign authors who lost or never obtained copyrights in the United States. We hold that the government has demonstrated a substantial interest in protecting American copyright holders’ interests abroad, and Section 514 is narrowly tailored to advance that interest.

In other words, there are American copyright holders (the Motion Picture Association of America and several other agents of the content industries presented themselves as amici) who stand to benefit, because their works, previously in the public domain abroad, will now be protected. The judge carefully stated that he was offering no opinion on rationales (1) and (3).

Copyright and free speech are always in some tension. There is ample reason to believe that copyright has been the winner in that dynamic for the past 15 years or so. What is interesting here is the deference the U.S. is giving, and the court is supporting, to an international treaty as the basis for copyright expansion. Because the protests over the drafted-in-secret Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, ACTA, are getting intense. See Public Knowledge’s take and invitation to write to the White House. So the combination of treaty and copyright in the Golan case sounds alarm bells. Stay tuned.

On ACTA, see also the statement on the site of the Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property.

2 Responses to “Retroactive Copyright on Public Domain Works”

  1. Joho the Blog » [berkman] Berkman Buzz Says:

    […] Harry Lewis hears alarm bells in Golan v. Holder link […]

  2. Google Books: Classic Books Available via the Espresso Book Machine Says:

    […] Blown to Bits: Your Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness after the Digital Explosion […]