NEWS: The Supreme Court Affirms Copyright Extension Legislation

NEWS: The Supreme Court Affirms Copyright Extension Legislation

Posted on Thu, Jan. 16, 2003
Supreme Court extends copyright protections HOLLYWOOD CHEERS; NET ACTIVISTS LOOK TO CONGRESS By Heather Fleming Phillips
Mercury News Washington Bureau
<http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/business/4959856.htm>

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a 1998 law that extends copyright protections by 20 years, dashing the hopes of activists who sought to make thousands of cultural works available for free online.

The ruling -- the first from the court in decades on copyright -- is a major victory for Hollywood and publishing companies. They will now be able to keep under lock a treasure trove of films, literature and music from the early 20th century -- including the first Mickey Mouse films and Robert Frost poems. Copyright holders stood to lose millions of dollars in sales and royalty payments.

<snip>

The case was filed on behalf of Eric Eldred, a New Hampshire computer programmer and Internet publishing hobbyist, and a number of other Internet publishers.

<snip>

Stanford University law Professor Lawrence Lessig sought to convince the court that the law unconstitutionally limited public access to cultural works and threatened the free-flowing nature of the Internet.

Full Story at the URL Above.

Additional Coverage of This News Story:

January 15, 2003
The Supreme Court Upholds Copyright Extensions By Sebastian Rupley
<http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,830856,00.asp>

Supreme Court nixes copyright challenge
By Declan McCullagh
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
January 15, 2003, 11:51 AM PT
<http://news.com.com/2100-1023-980792.html>

Justices defer to Congress' power to extend copyright Thu Jan 16, 7:43 AM ET
Joan Biskupic USA TODAY
<http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=676&ncid=
716&e=21&u=/usatoday/20030116/ts_usatoday/4784094>

15 January 2003
Supreme Court Review, Week of January 13
<http://usinfo.state.gov/cgi-bin/washfile/
display.pl?p=/products/washfile/latest&f= 03011501.dlt&t=/products/washfile/newsitem.shtml>

20-Year Extension of Existing Copyrights Is Upheld By LINDA GREENHOUSE
<http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/16/business/media/16BIZC.html>

Court Copyright War Over, Mickey Wins
by Steven Zeitchik, PW Newsline -- 1/15/2003
<http://publishersweekly.reviewsnews.com/
index.asp?layout=article&articleid=
CA271027&display=breakingNews&publication=publishersweekly>

Court Deaf to Public-Domain Pleas
<http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,57237,00.html>

Studio copyright battles worthy of Hollywood script By Stefanie Olsen, special to ZDNet
16 January 2003
<http://www.zdnet.com.au/newstech/communications/story/
0,2000024993,20271300,00.htm>

 Disney Wins, Eldred (and everyone else) Loses Posted by michael on Wednesday January 15, @10:30AM from the copyright-is-permanent dept.
hondo77 writes "In a 7-2 decision, The Supreme Court gave Disney what they wanted. Story just broke, no details yet." They're talking about the Eldred case, recently argued before the Supreme Court and mentioned on Slashdot many times. The upshot is that no works produced in the United States after the 1920's will ever go out of copyright. Opinions: Majority opinion, Stevens' dissent, Breyer's dissent.
<http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/03/01/15/1528253.shtml?tid=123>

Supreme Court Upholds Extended Copyrights
<http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Business/ap20030116_342.html>

Sincerely,
David Dillard
Temple University
(215) 204 - 4584
jwne[_at_]astro.temple.edu Received on Fri Jan 17 2003 - 07:39:41 GMT