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This symposium, edited by Professor Lawrence B. Solum, presents a variety
of perspectives on Eldred v. Ashcroft, on which the United States Supreme
Court will hear oral argument in its October 2002 term. Eldred may
become the most important copyright case to be heard by the Court in several
decades.
The decision below, Eldred v. Reno, 239 F.3d 372 (D.C. Cir. 2001), affirming
74 F.Supp.2d 1, (D.D.C. 1999), rejected a challenge to the Copyright Term
Extension Act of 1998, Pub.L. No. 105-298, 112 Stat. 2827. The United
States Supreme Court granted certiorari on two questions:
1. Did the D.C. Circuit err in holding that Congress
has the power under the Copyright Clause to extend retroactively the term
of existing copyrights?
2. Is a law that extends the term of existing and
future copyrights "categorically immune from challenge[] under the
First Amendment"?
These issues are of fundamental importance to both copyright and constitutional
law.
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