Constitutional Challenge Concerning Copyright Convention Continues

The Cyberlaw Clinic at Stanford’s Center for the Internet and Society represents the plaintiffs in Golan v. Ashcroft: “CIS filed this suit on behalf of a University of Denver, Colorado conductor and others, seeking to have the CTEA and the Uruguay Round Agreements Act declared unconstitutional. The suit challenges Congress’s ability to reclassify works that have already passed into the public domain as copyrighted, thereby giving ownership back to private entities.”
The suit survived its first challenge when the District Court rejected the Attorney General’s motion to dismiss. While dismissing the Eldred-related claim, the court found enough merit in the other three Constitutional claims: IP clause (Art. I §6), Free Speech (First Amendment) and substantive due process (Fifth Amendment.)