We've been talking about the Golan case, and its possible impact
on culture, for years. If you're unfamiliar with it, it's
the third in a line of cases, starting with the Eldred case, to
challenge aspects of copyright law as violating the First
Amendment. The key point in the case was questioning whether or
not the US could take works out of the public domain and
put them under copyright. The US had argued it needed to do this
under a trade agreement to make other countries respect our
copyrights. Of course, for those who were making use of those
public domain works, it sure seemed like a way to unfairly lock up
works that belonged to the public. It was difficult to see how
retroactively taking works out of the public domain could fit into
the traditional contours of copyright law... but today, on the day
of the big SOPA/PIPA protests... that's exactly what happened (pdf).
The ruling is ridiculously depressing.
[...]
Continua qui:
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120118/09090217454/supreme-court-chooses-sopapipa-protest-day-to-give-giant-middle-finger-to-public-domain.shtml