[dvd-discuss] [openlaw] Government takes more extreme line in second "Eldred" case

[openlaw(at)cyber.law.harvard.edu]

In the second challenge to Congress' power to extend the term of
copyrights, the government has argued for even broader powers than it
claimed in Eldred I.  In this case, Golan v. Ashcroft, the government now
claims that Congress has the power not only to extend existing copyrights,
but also to "restore" the copyright of work that has entered the public
domain.  And unlike Eldred I, the government does not maintain that
copyright is "largely" immune from First Amendment scrutiny; now the
government claims it is totally immune from First Amendment scrutiny.  The
government has also offered an extraordinary but mistaken theory about the
history of the 1790 statute.

Read the government brief and Golan's reply at
<http://openlaw.org/golanvashcroft/>