Re: Constitutional Challenge to (C)

From: KBLwrite <KBLwrite[_at_]aol.com>
Date: Fri, 3 Apr 1998 10:42:17 EST

On 98-04-01, Thomas Cotter <cotter[_at_]law.ufl.edu> wrote: 

>

> I don't think it would be that hard to come up with a litigable case
> or controversy to test the constitutionality of the legislation.
> Hire an orchestra next year to perform Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue,"
> which (I believe) is set to go into the public domain on January 1,
> 1999, if the term extension doesn't pass. When the orchestra is sued
> for copyright infringement, it can raise the constitutional argument
> as a defense.

Now this is an interesting idea. Suppose that such a concert (or some related event) WERE staged and publicized nationally, with ticket sales at enough of a price to cover the event AND be donated to a non-profit fund for preservation of the public domain (and, if necessary, for legal defense). This is the type of publicity that I think has been lacking. Perhaps the intangibility of the public domain needs to be made concrete and vivid from time to time so people can see that it exists and has supporters?

Karen LeFevre
Assoc. Prof. of Rhetoric
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
<kblwrite[_at_]aol.com> Received on Fri Apr 03 1998 - 15:42:22 GMT

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