• Cato Institute
• Eagle Forum
• Electronic Frontier Foundation
• H. Tomas Gomez-Arostegui and Tyler T. Ochoa: [not posted yet]
• Information Society Project at Yale Law School
• Professor Daniel J. Gervais: [not posted yet]
• Public Knowledge

Today, professors and fellows associated with the Information Society Project at Yale Law School filed an amicus brief in Golan v. Holder, a case that will be heard before the United States Supreme Court this fall. In this brief, we argue that the Court should apply strict First Amendment scrutiny to Section 514 of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act, a law that allows works to be taken out of the public domain and placed back under copyright protection. Although the plaintiffs in this case had stipulated that intermediate scrutiny was the appropriate standard of review under the First Amendment, we argue that when Congress abrogates a central constitutional privilege—as it has done here, by stripping away a traditional speech-protective contour of copyright law—Congress must satisfy a more rigorous standard of review.

We’ll have more to say over the coming months about this brief and the significance of Golan v. Holder, but for now, please read and share the brief: http://yaleisp.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Golan-Amicus-Brief-filed.pdf

Bill Patry, senior copyright counsel at Google, met with law students, Information Society Project fellows and others at Yale Law School on March 3.  The topic of discussion was a draft chapter of Patry’s upcoming book on the subject of how to fix the copyright system.  Patry, a scholar of copyright law history, described the evolution to the current day and his own increasing involvement in the issues over the years, including the publication of his last book, Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars.

Discussions covered issues such as who is the target audience of the book and of the debate.  The new book is likely to generate significant discussion about how content- sharing can be brought up to date with technology and the digital age.

Other issues were orphan works – for whom the copyright owner cannot be found, transfers of rights, and ever-increasing terms of copyright protection with less and less actual copying.

Patry was also asked about digital convergence and ways to protect copyright owners.  He described a digital reference tool that copyright holders can use to track content, such as used on YouTube, which offers options of blocking, tracking, and monetizing.  The latter may be used by copyright owners who welcome the dissemination of their content and can help avoid the unpopular notice-and-takedown approach.

Patry also discussed a suggestion he made that exclusive rights need to be replaced in many cases by a right of remuneration for authors, along with a right of access by the public.”  He discussed alternative sources of revenue for authors through means other than digital rights management.

The event was held within the context of this semester’s reading group on international IP policy led by ISP Fellow William New, director of Intellectual Property Watch in Geneva, Switzerland.  The Information Society Project arranged a lunch event held in the distinguished law school faculty lounge.