Anonymous writes "Larry Lessig and his friends at the Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society today filed a new constitutional challenge to copyright. The focus of this new suit (styled Kahle v. Ashcroft) is the consequences of the removal from the copyright laws of "formalities" like registration, notice, and renewal. The disappearance of copyright formalities has created a class of "orphan works" -- i.e., books, films, etc. that, although not commercially viable, remain under copyright and are thus not easily available for archiving, preservation, and re-use.
Here are the complaint and a FAQ.
Note:
Dude! There's been plenty of buzz that the next round of suits would build on the dicta in Eldred about the "traditional contours of copyright" and whether it means anything. Now we'll find out whether there's a pony hidden in that phrase after all. But most of the buzz had been around using it to go after the DMCA; taking on Berne instead is a nice twist.
Personally, I'm not super-optimistic: I read the Eldred decision as a casual-verging-on-sloppy resolution to a case most of the Court saw as "easy"; seeing the harm in overly broad copyright doesn't seem to come easily to judges. (But with the Canadian decision in LSUC v. CCH, perhaps the tide is turning.) Good luck, Brewster."