Lessig’s Copyright Law Round-Up
by T. Colin Dodd
On the continuing question of © and the First Amendment (Lessig Blog)
Some important news in the continuing struggle to reckon the First Amendment and copyright. For those not following this in depth, here’s the story so far:
In Eldred v. Ashcroft, the Court was asked to subject a copyright statute to First Amendment analysis. The Court declined that request. Instead, the Court held that so long as copyright act does not change the “traditional contours of copyright protection,” further First Amendment review is not required.
That standard left open the question of what the “traditional contours of copyright protection” were. In three follow on cases, lower courts have now addressed the question. In all three of these lower court cases, the government has argued that by “traditional contours of copyright protection,” the Eldred court meant simply the “idea/expression” dichotomy and “fair use.” Thus, the only possible First Amendment challenge to a copyright statute, according to the government, is if the statute changes one of these two “traditional First Amendment safeguards,” as the Court in Eldred referred to them.
