Re: NBA v. Motorola

From: Dan L. Burk <BURKDANL[_at_]LANMAIL.SHU.EDU>
Date: Tue, 18 Feb 1997 13:30:21 -0500

On 2/15/97, John Lederer <johnl[_at_]ibm.net> wrote:
>
> I view the copyright clause as an exception to the First Amendment.
> Absent a square grounding in the copyright clause, it seems to me
> that most attempts to create restrictions on the distribution of
> information immediately fall afoul of the First Amendment.
>
> Under that sort of analysis it really becomes immaterial whether
> there is some broad general power that would allow Congress to act
> (e.g. using the tax power to punitively tax the distribution of
> lists of Congressmen who take bribes). Congress needs an exception
> to the First Amendment and the commerce clause is not one.

This is fairly close to my own thinking, and I find it a more persuasive prohibition on the ability to protect facts than Paul's heirarchy of limitations.

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Dan L. Burk
Seton Hall University
burkdanl[_at_]lanmail.shu.edu

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Received on Tue Feb 18 1997 - 22:00:06 GMT