Supreme Court Upholds Copyright Law Extension

dahamsta

Reuters

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld on Wednesday a law extending copyright protection by 20 years, delaying when creative works such as Walt Disney Co.'s Mickey Mouse, F. Scott Fitzgerald's novels and George Gershwin's compositions become public property.

The 7-2 ruling was a victory for the U.S. Justice Department, large media companies and song publishers that argued the longer term was needed to protect a vital industry that contributes more than $500 billion to the U.S. economy.

It dealt a defeat to an Internet publisher and others who challenged the 1998 law for limiting free speech and harming the creative process by locking up material that they said should be in the public domain for all to use without charge.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said for the majority that the U.S. Congress in adopting the law acted within its powers under the Constitution, but she emphasized the court was not passing judgment on whether the extension was a wise policy decision.

She also said the law does not violate free-speech rights.

[...]

The constant extensions of copyright in the US aren't protecting anyone's rights only Hollywood, and our reliance on Hollywood means that the rest of the world just has to sit back and take it. Mickey Mouse can blow me. *huff*

Oops, was that a rant?

adam

SweetBirdOfTruth

This goes way beyond Hollywood and really does treat limited liability corporations as the new immortals. At a time when many in authority in the the West are openly admiting we are living in a new age of - imperialism economic, political and cultural - one can hardly be surprised by such judgements but one can still be bothered by them.

Still, on the upside, if the EU follow suit then the National Gallery here in Dublin can look forward to continued funding from George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion legacy - clounds and silver linings, eh?

fyi, the Gruan's take on the topic in the Meejah section today: http://media.guardian.co.uk/mediaguardian/story/0,7558,882797,00.html

sceptre

The EU don't really have to follow suit - most copyrights in Europe already stand at life plus 70 years (we've taken it on in this jurisdiction to be in tandem with the length of copyright in Germany) - it's one of the excuses bandied about in the US for the extension. The "work for hire" copyright term is currently different in the two jurisdictions though - the EU has a term of 75 years from first publication, in the US it's the earlier of 95 years from first publication or 120 years from first creation. Part of the reason for the US extension (and I'm not defending it) was the disparity in treatment of US authors in Europe and European authors in Europe - see Bruce Lehman's statement before Congress in 1995.


Larry Lessig's blog has some interesting observations from before, during and after the battle. I get the impression Prof Lessig genuinely got pretty depressed when the judgement came down. The diagnosis of how the battle was probably lost (linked on Jan 20) will sound familiar to anyone who's read Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace, which could have acted in part as a warning foretelling the result (see the chapters on the fourth amendment and the Olmstead case - not the same thing at all but the Supreme Court probably saw it that way). I'm not going to go off on a rant about the inevitable tendency of a conservative/Republican dominated Supreme Court to deliver a judgement like this, fair or not (just pretend I ranted anyway) but the Eldred case was going to be fighting an uphill battle against the powers of big business given the circumstances.

(I haven't linked to the Lessig book just for the sheer hell of it - it's pretty relevant to the wider view of online freedom as well, more so than The Future of Ideas)

To close with some humour, here's a quote I came across somewhere and saved (don't have a link):

The copyright in the Winnie the Pooh stories will expire on 31st December 2026, 70 years after the death of the author A A Milne in 1956. The copyright in the proper Pooh illustrations will expire on 31st December 2046, 70 years after the death of the illustrator E H Shepard in 1976. The copyright in the hideous yellow Disney travesty of Pooh will, unfortunately, last much longer.

(apologies for just darting in with short posts - I'm only getting back to reality this weekend after recent academic endeavours/hurdles)

(edit: fixed link)

yellum

Lessig and his groupies have been busy gathering loads of data since this decision and a load of the blogs in my aggregator have been talking about this decision daily.

Its funny that many of the Disney creations that are still "protected" were based on works that were in the public domain at the time Walt started his ideas.

Looking forward to reading Lessigs Future of Ideas, have it on order from Amazon..