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SAA and
Others Question Constitutionality of Copyright Term Extension
In 1998
Congress passed the Copyright Term Extension Act increasing the duration
of copyright from life of the author plus fifty years to life of the
author
plus seventy years. The effect was to stop for twenty years the
addition of any published work to the public domain. As Roy Rosenzweig
noted in a recent article in the Journal of American History, "[f]or
historians, copyright protection has redlined . . . much twentieth-century
history. . . ." In response, a group of publishers and preservationists
filed suit challenging the constitutionality of copyright term extension. The
suit, Eldred v. Ashcroft, argues that "perpetual copyright
on the installment plan" is in direct violation of the constitutional
stipulation that the monopoly rights granted by copyright be for a limited
term. The suit has lost in the Federal Appeals court, and recently
the plaintiffs asked the Supreme Court to rule on the issue.
A coalition
of information organizations, including the Society of American Archivists,
the Association of Research Libraries, the American Library Association,
the Digital Futures Coalition, and others have filed an amicus brief
with
the Court asking that they hear the case. The brief notes the irreparable
harm done to historians and institutions that exploit the public domain
when copyright term is excessive. A copy of the amicus brief can
be found at http://eon.law.harvard.edu/openlaw/eldredvashcroft/cert/library-amicus.pdf;
more information on the suit is available at http://eon.law.harvard.edu/openlaw/eldredvashcroft/.
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