Monday, April 15, 2002

Lawyer who will argue in favor of Copyright Extension speaks his mind When the Supreme Court hears argument in the Eldred case next term Morton Goldberg will defend the constitutionality of the so-called "Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act," which extended the terms of copyright by 20 years.  Critics complain that it harms the public by ignoring the importance of the public domain, and that it is unconstitutional because the Constitution says that copyrights shall be for "limited times," and the term cannot keep on being extended indefinitely.  Morton disagrees.   He is a Past-Chair of the ABA Section on Intellectual Property, and recently urged the ABA to support a "friend of the court" brief, which apparently the ABA refused to do.  According to the interview in Salon article he and his firm represent members of the record industry, publishing houses and Hollywood studios.  I'm pretty sure that Larry Lessig is going to argue against him. 6:04:09 PM

© Copyright 2002 Ernest Svenson.