By Andrew Crocker Supreme Court to Hear “Major Test of Copyright Power” SCOTUSblog reports that the Supreme Court has granted certiorari in Golan v. Holder to consider a challenge to the federal law that restored U.S. copyrights to certain foreign works that had previously been in the public domain. The petitioners are “orchestra conductors, educators, performers, film archivists, and motion picture distributors” who claim to have relied upon the formerly public domain works. The petitioners have twice appealed to, and ... Read More...

Tenth Circuit Rejects First Amendment Challenge to U.S. Copyright Law By Abby Lauer – Edited by Gary Pong Golan v. Holder, Nos. 09-1234 & 09-1261 (10th Cir., June 21, 2010) Slip Opinion Section 514 of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act (URAA), codified in 17 U.S.C. § 104A, restored the U.S. copyrights of foreign authors who had lost copyright protection for failing to comply with certain formalities required by U.S. law.  Plaintiffs challenged Section 514 as a violation of the First ... Read More...

Tenth Circuit Affirms Liability for Seller of Private Telephone Records By Tyler Lacey – Edited by Anthony Kammer Federal Trade Commission v. Accusearch Inc., June 29, 2009, No. 08-8003 Slip Opinion On June 29, 2009, the Tenth Circuit affirmed the Wyoming District Court, holding that Accursearch’s sale of private telephone records on its Abika.com website constituted an unfair practice in violation of the Federal Trade Commission Act (FTCA) and granted summary judgment for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Dan Gooden ... Read More...

District Court Upholds First Amendment Challenge to the URAA By Caitlyn Ross – Edited by Stephanie Weiner Golan v. Holder D. of Colorado, April 3, 2009, No. 01-cv-01854-LTB Memorandum Opinion (hosted by the Stanford Fair Use Project) On April 3rd, the United States District Court for the District of Colorado granted plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment, upholding the First Amendment challenge to Section 514 of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act (URAA), codified in 17 U.S.C. §104A. The case was on ... Read More...

Stronger 1st Amendment Review of Expansions in Copyright Protection? By Nick Bramble On September 5, the 10th Circuit handed down its opinion in Golan v. Gonzales, No. 05-1259 (10th Cir. Sept. 4, 2007). The court held that the implementation of the Berne Convention on Copyrights (the Uruguay Round Agreements Act § 514) may violate the 1st Amendment by removing some materials–books, films, and songs, mostly–from the public domain and placing them under copyright protection. Generally, the court’s ruling would expand ... Read More...