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From: ALAWASH E-MAIL [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
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Sent: Friday, May 24, 2002 9:56 AM
To: ALA Washington Office Newsline
Subject: [ALA-WO:725] INFO/COPY: Library
Associations
file Amicus Brief re: Copyright Term Extension Act
ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office
Newsline
Volume 11, Number 44
May 24, 2002
In This Issue:
Library associations and others file amicus brief in
U.S.
Supreme Court challenging constitutionality of Copyright Term Extension
Act
Briefs were filed on May 20 in the U.S. Supreme Court in
a
case challenging the constitutionality of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term
Extension Act. The appeal in Eldred v. Ashcroft asks the Court to
overturn
a decision by the federal appeals court for the D. C. Circuit, which in
February 2001 rejected the argument that the Copyright Term Extension
Act is
unconstitutional.
The Act, passed by Congress in 1998, extends the
copyright
term for an additional 20 years, so that a commercially-produced work is
now
governed by the provisions of copyright law for 95 years; for an
individual's work the term is "life of the author" plus 70 years. The
federal government's brief, defending the law, will be filed in June.
The
Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments from the parties this fall.
In support of the challengers' case, the five major
national
library associations and ten other groups submitted an amici curiae
(friend
of the court) brief asking the Supreme Court to rule that the extended
term
of protection for copyrighted works is unconstitutional.
* The brief explains that the new lengthier copyright terms exceed
the
"limited times" of protection authorized by the Constitution's Copyright
Clause to "promote the progress" of science and the useful arts. In
addition, the grant of extended terms for works already in existence
when
the law was passed - retrospective protection - does not meet the
constitutional requirement of innovation in order for a work to be
copyrighted.
* The brief also argues that Congress did not adequately consider
the
substantial harms that flow from keeping works under copyright
protection
almost perpetually, thereby stifling the public domain.
Joining the brief of the American Library Association,
American Association of Law Libraries, Association of Research
Libraries,
Medical Library Association, and Special Libraries Association were the
following organizations: American Historical Association, Art Libraries
Society of North America, Association for Recorded Sound Collections,
Council on Library and Information Resources, International Association
of
Jazz Record Collectors, Midwest Archives Conference, Music Library
Association, National Council on Public History, Society for American
Music,
and Society of American Archivists. More about the case can be found on
the
Washington Office web site, http://www.ala.org/washoff/eldred.html
<http://www.ala.org/washoff/eldred.html> . The brief filed by Mr.
Eldred
and the other challengers of the law, and the other amicus briefs, can
be
found at http://eon.law.harvard.edu/openlaw/eldredvashcroft
<http://eon.law.harvard.edu/openlaw/eldredvashcroft> .
******
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