Thursday, October 10, 2002

U.S. Supreme Court Hears Arguments in Copyright-Protection Case By ANDREA L. FOSTER Washington Justices of the United States Supreme Court peppered lawyers on both sides of a copyright debate with skeptical questions during oral arguments on Wednesday in the case of Eldred v. Ashcroft. The lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, which in 1998 added 20 years of copyright protection to creative works. The act is supported by the entertainment industry, which wants to keep earning royalties from selected songs, movies, and books that otherwise would enter the public domain 75 years after companies acquired copyrights to the works. But library groups and a diverse array of scholars oppose the law, saying it deprives the public of access to literature, music, and films. The act lengthened copyright protection from 50 to 70 years after the creator's death for most works. Works held by corporations, or for which there is no identifiable author, receive copyright protection for 95 years, up from 75 years. The lead plaintiff in the case, Eric Eldred, republishes classic literature online. He asserts that the Copyright Term Extension Act prevents him from posting works that no longer have any economic value to their authors, because they are dead. During oral arguments, the justices expressed concern that if they ruled that the 1998 extension was unconstitutional, then 10 previous decisions by Congress to lengthen the term of copyright protection might also be considered unconstitutional. "Don't we run the risk of upsetting previous extensions?" Justice Sandra Day O'Connor asked Lawrence Lessig, a law professor at Stanford University who is representing Mr. Eldred. And Justice Stephen G. Breyer said he wondered if "chaos would pursue." Mr. Lessig disputed that copyright law would be disrupted because, he said, his client is challenging only the extension granted in the 1998 statute. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy said that Mr. Eldred's challenge implied that the 1998 act and the Copyright Act of 1976, which established the previous limits, had substantially limited the amount of work available in the public domain. "I don't see any empirical evidence of that," he said. Justice O'Connor said that the Copyright Term Extension Act may have extended copyrights long beyond what the framers of the Constitution envisioned, but that it did not appear to be unconstitutional. She referred to Article I, Section 8, of the U.S. Constitution, which gives Congress the power to grant copyrights for "limited times." "Is it not limited?" she asked Mr. Lessig, of the Copyright Term Extension Act. Mr. Lessig replied that Congress's ability to repeatedly extend copyrights needed to be reined in. When Solicitor General Theodore B. Olson, representing the Justice Department, stood to argue in support of the Copyright Term Extension Act, the justices asked him whether authors really had an extra incentive to publish because of an additional 20 years of copyright protection. "Who are these people who are going to be moved by that incentive?" questioned Justice Breyer. Mr. Olson emphasized his belief that the copyright clause of the Constitution left it up to Congress to decide the length of copyright protection. The copyright clause sought to balance the interests of creators in receiving compensation for their work with the public's interest in a vibrant and rich public domain. The Supreme Court is expected to issue a decision in the case by the end of June 2003. Background articles from The Chronicle: Academic Groups File Papers Supporting Online Publisher's Challenge of Copyright Act (6/21/2002) Supreme Court Will Hear Copyright Case Affecting Online Resources (3/8/2002) One Man's Challenge to Copyright Restrictions on Online Publishing (6/1/2001) Opinion: Copyright as Cudgel (8/2/2002) Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

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