[Foundation-l] Court: Congress can't put public domain back into copyright

Tue Apr 7 04:33:32 UTC 2009

Dan Rosenthal wrote:
> The 10th circuit (or the US District Court for Colorado, which  
> actually made the decision on remand from the 10th circuit) does not  
> cover the ninth circuit either.
>
> AFAICT Eldred v. Ashcroft remains the latest SCOTUS case on the matter.
>
> If you read Larry Lessigs blog he talks about the decision as well.
>
>   
I wouldn't attach too much weight to the fact that the servers are in 
Florida.  Copyright remains essentially a federal matter, except in a 
few situations regarding state common law applied to sound recordings, 
which are mostly not relevant to our interests.  Anyone bringing a claim 
against WMF is more likely to do so in the district that serves his 
convenience anyway.

The Eldred v. Ashcroft case is easily distinguished.  It was about 
extending the term of copyright before the previous term had expired. 
Golan is about works that had already gone into the public domain, and 
seeks to establish the principle that once something has gone into the 
public domain it can't be taken back out.

Ec