Re: sovereign nations & copyright law

On Tue, Jul 25, 2000, Terry Carroll <carroll[_at_]tjc.com> wrote:
>
> On Fri, 21 Jul 2000, Harold Federow <haroldf[_at_]bsquare.com> wrote:
> >
> > On Thu, Jul 20, 2000, Jayne Sebby <jsebby[_at_]unlnotes.unl.edu> wrote:
> > >
> > > Are citizens of sovereign nations within the U.S. (ie: the various
> > > Indian Tribes) subject to U.S. copyright law?
> >
> > This is top of the head, so beware. My sense of Indian sovereignty
> > is that it is limited sovereignty and that Indians are generally
> > subject to most federal laws. In some sense, they are roughly equal
> > to the states in sovereignty in that both are under the federal
> > government and their laws have an often complicated interaction with
> > each other.
>
> The big difference, I think, is that an Indian Tribe would not be
> covered by the Eleventh Amendment.

Remember, too, that most if not all Indian nations, in addition to enjoying limited sovereignty, are also beneficiaries of the specific terms of treaties with the US government. The terms of those treaties differ from one tribe or nation to the next. So in resolving the original question, Jayne Sebby should consider not only federal "Indian law" and the Constitution, but also the terms of any relevant treaties.

Robert C. Cumbow
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