What Happens in the Public Domain Must Stay in the Public Domain

Interesting commentary on Wired on Golan v. Gonzalez, by Jennifer Granick, who was recently appointed civil liberties director at EFF. Complete decision here, on Lawrence Lessig's blog.

Plaintiffs had challenged the constitutionality of § 514 of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act (URAA), codified at 17 USC §§ 104A, 109, which had removed some works from the public domain.

The court ruled that "the URAA transformed the ordinary process of copyright protection and contravened a bedrock principle of copyright law that works in the public domain remain in the public domain. Therefore, (...) § 514 has altered the traditional contours of copyright protection."