Challenges to Copyright Law Rejected By 9th Circuit

by Michael Cook on January 26, 2007
News

Stanford Center for Internet and Society Kahle v. Gonzales – In this case, two archives ask the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to hold that statutes that extended copyright terms unconditionally — the Copyright Renewal Act and the Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA) — are unconstitutional under the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment, and that the Copyright Renewal Act and CTEA together create an “effectively perpetual” term with respect to works first published after January 1, 1964 and before January 1, 1978, in violation of the Constitution’s Limited Times and Promote…Progress Clauses.

The Complaint asks the Court for a declaratory judgment that copyright restrictions on orphaned works — works whose copyright has not expired but which are no longer available — violate the constitution.

— Opinion — Circuit Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, Brewster v. Gonzales, January 22, 2007

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beSpacific – Accurate, focused law and technology news, January 23, 2007

UPDATE:

Read Michael Hart’s Opinion on the 9th Circuit rejection.

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