[License-discuss] Golan v. Holder

[Lawrence Rosen]

Colleagues,

 

I commend for your reading pleasure the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Golan
v. Holder, 565 U. S. ____ (2012), which holds broadly that Congress can
restore the copyrights of works previously in the public domain in order to
conform to the requirements of the Berne Convention.  

 

See http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/11pdf/10-545.pdf and 17 U.S.C. 104A
<http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode17/usc_sec_17_00000104---A000-
.html> . This 6-2 decision was written by the court's copyright expert,
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. It relies heavily on the court's earlier
decision in Eldred v. Ashcroft, which some of you may remember from a few
years ago and which affirmed Congressional power to extend copyright terms.

 

Besides being a well-written summary of the purposes of copyright and the
balance struck by copyright law, the Golan decision emphasizes again for us
that the public domain isn't quite as safe as licenses.

 

/Larry

 

Lawrence Rosen

Rosenlaw & Einschlag, a technology law firm (www.rosenlaw.com) 

3001 King Ranch Road, Ukiah, CA 95482

 

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