shouting loudly

9th Circuit upholds acts automatically extending copyright

Internet Archive head Brewster Kahle and Richard Prelinger of Prelinger Associates have been turned away in their attempt to use works that have long since fallen out of publication.

Their legal team, Jennifer Stisa Granick, Lawrence Lessig, and Christopher Sprigman, of the Stanford Center for Internet and Society, had hoped to argue against the constitutionality of the laws that removed requirements for copyright registration. Both the lower court and the 9th Circuit dismissed the case before it could begin.

The plaintiffs intended to challenge the automatic extension of copyright protection for works created between 1964 and 1977 as a violation of the First Amendment. By perpetually and retroactively extending copyrights, they also intended to argue, these laws have effectively created a perpetual term despite the Constitution’s requirement that copyright terms be limited.

The lower court dismissed the case, arguing that the statutes in question, the Copyright Renewal Act and the Copyright Term Extension Act, had already been ruled constitutional in Eldred v. Ashcroft (pdf). The 9th Circuit agreed:

Arguments similar to Plaintiffs’ were presented to the Supreme Court in Eldred, which affirmed the constitutionality of the Copyright Term Extension Act against those attacks. The Supreme Court has already effectively addressed and denied Plaintiffs’ arguments. We AFFIRM.

The case is here: Kahle v. Gonzales (pdf).