logroller
01-19-2012, 11:21 PM
Supreme Court Chooses SOPA/PIPA Protest Day To Give A Giant Middle Finger To The Public Domain
We've been talking about the Golan case, and its possible impact on culture (http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110602/02304214514/why-golan-case-matters-pulling-works-public-domain-is-massive-tax-culture.shtml), for years. If you're unfamiliar with it, it's the third in a line of cases, starting with the Eldred case, to challenge aspects of copyright law as violating the First Amendment. The key point in the case was questioning whether or not the US could take works out of the public domain and put them under copyright...
Stunningly, the majority decision here, written by Justice Ginsburg, seems to suggest that there's no First Amendment issue here, because if people want to make use of the works that were previously, but are no longer, in the public domain, they can just buy those rights:
But Congress has not put petitioners in this bind. The question here, as in Eldred, is whether would-be users must pay for their desired use of the author’s expression, or else limit their exploitation to “fair use” of that work. Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf could once be performed free of charge; after §514 the right to perform it must be obtained in the marketplace.
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120118/09090217454/supreme-court-chooses-sopapipa-protest-day-to-give-giant-middle-finger-to-public-domain.shtml
Uh what? Taking something out of the public domain once in it seems downright foolish, I don't get it. WTF is going on in Congress. A side note, anybody read the MPAA's response to yesterday protest. They accused internet corps of turning their users into 'corporate pawns'...uh huh, like this bill being introduced by Congress isn't testament to the same--as the saying goes, Pot...kettle...
We've been talking about the Golan case, and its possible impact on culture (http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110602/02304214514/why-golan-case-matters-pulling-works-public-domain-is-massive-tax-culture.shtml), for years. If you're unfamiliar with it, it's the third in a line of cases, starting with the Eldred case, to challenge aspects of copyright law as violating the First Amendment. The key point in the case was questioning whether or not the US could take works out of the public domain and put them under copyright...
Stunningly, the majority decision here, written by Justice Ginsburg, seems to suggest that there's no First Amendment issue here, because if people want to make use of the works that were previously, but are no longer, in the public domain, they can just buy those rights:
But Congress has not put petitioners in this bind. The question here, as in Eldred, is whether would-be users must pay for their desired use of the author’s expression, or else limit their exploitation to “fair use” of that work. Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf could once be performed free of charge; after §514 the right to perform it must be obtained in the marketplace.
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120118/09090217454/supreme-court-chooses-sopapipa-protest-day-to-give-giant-middle-finger-to-public-domain.shtml
Uh what? Taking something out of the public domain once in it seems downright foolish, I don't get it. WTF is going on in Congress. A side note, anybody read the MPAA's response to yesterday protest. They accused internet corps of turning their users into 'corporate pawns'...uh huh, like this bill being introduced by Congress isn't testament to the same--as the saying goes, Pot...kettle...