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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSupreme Court Says Congress May Re-Copyright Public Domain Works
Supreme Court Says Congress May Re-Copyright Public Domain Works
Congress may take books, musical compositions and other works out of the public domain, where they can be freely used and adapted, and grant them copyright status again, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.
In a 6-2 ruling, the court said that, just because material enters the public domain, it is not territory that works may never exit. (.pdf)
The top court was ruling on a petition by a group of orchestra conductors, educators, performers, publishers and film archivists who urged the justices to reverse an appellate court that ruled against the group, which has relied on artistic works in the public domain for their livelihoods.
They claimed that re-copyrighting public works would breach the speech rights of those who are now using those works without needing a license. There are millions of decades-old works at issue. Some of the well-known ones include H.G. Wells Things to Come; Fritz Langs Metropolis and the musical compositions of Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky.
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/01/scotus-re-copyright-decision/
marginlized
(357 posts)Is this the hijacking of popular culture? Who will be buying the copyrights? It will be a matter of wealth and only lead to further concentration thereof. I'm in favor of letting heirs or family (orphans and widows, etc.) of artists benefit from copyright, but my fear is that corporations will be buying control over cultural expression. Actually, it would be easy enough to limit copyright claim to family and descendants within a certain generation(s). Why not?
And what are the limits of copyright violation? How much of a quote does it take to become an "illegal performance"? If you can't quote known literature or reference popular music, film, art, etc., what does that do to your culture and freedom of expression?
The Straight Story
(48,121 posts)And it could get really ugly I suppose.