Court Opens Way to Claim the Public Domain

(Forwarded from Stanford Center for Internet and Society list)

-----Original Message-----
From: Aaron Silverstein <[email protected]>
Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2004 16:56:14 -0500
Subject: pho: FW: [stanford_cis] Effort to Reclaim Public Domain 
Scores Victory


------ Forwarded Message
> From: Lauren Gelman <[email protected]>
> Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2004 13:49:12 -0800
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: [stanford_cis] Effort to Reclaim Public Domain Scores
Victory
> 
> 
> For Immediate Release: Tuesday, March 16, 2004
> 
> Center for Internet and Society
> Media Release
> 
> Contact:
> 
> Professor Lawrence Lessig
> Stanford Law School
> lessig<at>pobox.com
> 
> Assistant Professor Ed Lee
> The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law.
> (614)292-3201
> elee<at>pobox.com
> 
> Elizabeth Rader
> Fellow, Center for Internet and Society
> (650) 724-0517
> erader<at>law.stanford.edu
> _________________________________
> 
> EFFORT TO RECLAIM PUBLIC DOMAIN SCORES VICTORY
> 
> Court Allows Challenge to Re-copyrighting Public Domain
> Works to Proceed
> 
> Stanford, CA -  A major roadblock to reclaiming content for the
public
> domain was removed today, when a U.S. District Court ruled that a
> case challenging re-copyrighting of public domain materials could
> proceed despite the government's insistence that the Supreme
> Court's decision in Eldred v. Ashcroft invalidated the claims.
> 
> "Lawrence Golan, the conductor of the University of Denver's Lamont
> Symphony Orchestra, and the other artists involved will get their
> chance to show how severely they have been harmed by Congress's
> removal of numerous artistic works from the public domain by the
> grant of so-called 'restored' copyrights." said Edward Lee, Assistant
> Professor of Law at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law
> and one of the attorneys for the Plaintiffs.
> 
> In the case, Golan and the other plaintiffs argued that Section 514
> of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act (URAA) is unconstitutional
> because re-copyrighting works does not promote progress as required
> by the Copyright Clause, abridges speech in violation of the First
> Amendment, and violates Due Process by depriving the public of
> the free availability of public domain works.  Section 514 of the
> URAA was enacted in 1994 after the Uruguay Agreement negotiations
> and is now codified at 17 U.S.C. 104(a). While striking one term
> extension challenge based on the Eldred case, US District Court
> Chief Judge Lewis T. Babcock, rejected the government's Motion to
> Dismiss the case and allowed the plaintiff's three remaining
> claims to proceed.
> 
> Plaintiffs Lawrence Golan and Richard Kapp are internationally
acclaimed
> conductors whose symphonies planned to perform musical works that
> were in the public domain, but re-copyrighted by the URAA. As a
result,
> these and other orchestras can no longer perform whole classes of
works
> by great foreign composers.   Plaintiffs Ron Hall and John McDonough
are
> film lovers who preserve and distribute old movies and television
shows.
> Because URAA re-copyrights many public domain movies and shows,
> Hall and McDonough can no longer sell or afford to preserve these old
> films, which soon may be lost forever due to the decomposition of the
film.
> 
> The plaintiffs are represented by Elizabeth Rader with the Center for
> Internet and Society (CIS) at Stanford Law School, by  Edward Lee,
> Assistant Professor of Law at The Ohio State University Moritz
College
> of Law and by Hugh Gottschalk and Carolyn Fairless at Wheeler, Trigg
> & Kennedy in Denver, CO.
> 
> Lawrence Lessig, founder and Director of CIS and a Stanford Law
> Professor said, "We look forward to the opportunity to convince the
court
> that taking works out of the public domain doesn't promote progress,
it
> harms progress."  Professor Lessig is the author of Free Culture, a
book
> about the importance of a shared public domain, which will be
released
> later this month.
> 
> The case will now move forward and the plaintiffs will have an
> opportunity to show that the challenged law is unconstitutional.
> 
> For this release:
> http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/about/cases/golan.press.3.16.pdf
> 
> Golan v. Ashcroft website:
> http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/about/cases/golan_v_ashcroft.shtml
> 
> About Center for Internet and Society:
> 
> The Center for Internet and Society (CIS) is a public interest
technology
> law and policy program located at Stanford Law School and a part of
Law,
> Science and Technology Program. The CIS brings together scholars,
> academics, legislators, students, programmers, security researchers,
and
> scientists to study the interaction of new technologies and the law
and to
> examine how the synergy between the two can either promote or harm
> public goods like free speech, privacy, public commons, diversity,
and
> scientific inquiry. The CIS Cyberlaw Clinic gives Stanford Law School
> students an opportunity to work with clients on cases and legal
projects
> that involve questions of technology, law and the public interest.
> 
> 
> -- 
> Lauren Gelman    
> Center for Internet and Society
> Stanford Law School
> (ph) 650-724-3358
> http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/
> CA Bar No. 228734
> 

------ End of Forwarded Message


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