All Your Public Domain Are Belong to Us (Ernest Miller)
Disappointing, but not unexpected news about the ability of the government to restore copyright to public domain works. In Luck's Music Library v. Ashcroft [PDF] (21 pages), the United States District Court for the District of Columbia upheld the ability of the government to restore copyright for foreign works that had entered the public domain in the US, but were copyrighted in their home country. The case challenged the constitutionality of Section 514 of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act, codified at 17 U.S.C. 104a. The case had been held up until after the Eldred decision. The plaintiffs were a sheet music company and a film restoration company.
[Copyfight]