FC: Bush admin. says Congress can copyright "public domain" works

From: Declan McCullagh (declanat_private)
Date: Wed Jan 09 2002 - 22:34:56 PST

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    Date: Wed, 09 Jan 2002 23:39:36 -0500
    To: declanat_private
    From: Wendy Seltzer <wendyat_private>
    Subject: Government takes more extreme line in second "Eldred" case
    
    Hi Declan,
    I thought your readers would be interested in the latest filings from Golan 
    v. Ashcroft.  While we await the Supreme Court's announcement whether it 
    will hear Eldred v. Ashcroft, the first challenge to the copyright term 
    extension, the government has taken an even more extreme position in this 
    second case.
    
    >In the second challenge to Congress' power to extend the term of
    >copyrights, the government has argued for even broader powers than it
    >claimed in Eldred I.  In this case, Golan v. Ashcroft, the government now
    >claims that Congress has the power not only to extend existing copyrights,
    >but also to "restore" the copyright of work that has entered the public
    >domain.  And unlike Eldred I, the government does not maintain that
    >copyright is "largely" immune from First Amendment scrutiny; now the
    >government claims it is totally immune from First Amendment scrutiny.  The
    >government has also offered an extraordinary but mistaken theory about the
    >history of the 1790 statute.
    >
    >Read the government brief and Golan's reply at
    ><http://openlaw.org/golanvashcroft/>
    >
    >----------
    >Openlaw is a project of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society.
    
    
    --
    Wendy Seltzer -- wendyat_private
    Fellow, Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School
    http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/seltzer.html
    
    
    
    
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