[luau] News - Lessig's Thoughts On Eldred v. Ashcroft Arguments

[Warren Togami]

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/10/13/1636205&mode=thread&tid=99
"Lawrence Lessig has updated his blog giving his thoughts on how the
oral arguments for Eldred vs. Ashcroft went before the Supreme Court on
Wednesday. He discusses the goals and methods he used in framing his
arguments to convince the court to overturn the Sony Bono Copyright Term
Extension Act, how he felt he did in presenting his arguments, and also
provides some analysis on how he thinks the court might rule."

http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=42196&cid=4441218
Quick Summary:
 For those of you who are too lazy to actually follow this, here's the
quick summary of where we are at:

Remember that just because a law is "bad" and horribly unbalanced
towards lobbists doesn't make it illegal unless there is some specific
legal reason the law is unconstitutional.

Basically, Eldred is arguing that because we have a Constitution of
enumerated powers (Congress can only do what the constitution
specifically allows), that the power to extend copyright must be
limited. In other words, the Constitution grants Congress specific
powers. If Congress continually extends copyright, than it has unlimited
power (which the Constitution doesn't give it).

So far it seems the court is buying this argument. The court seems to be
unsure though if it has any power to do anything about it. This is good
news to Lessig, because it means the court buys the limited power
argument.

The case was also helped by a government bumble. The government argued
that there is no constitutional limit on the ability of Congress to
extend copyright, thus the extention was legal. This actually helped
Eldred because the court did not like this view at all. The court did
not support the idea that the constitution limits the powers of
Congress, but that Congress gets to set what the limits are. In effect,
the government proved Eldred's point themselves.

So there is a fighting chance that Eldred might win. Everyone say a big
thanks to people like Lessig who are fighting hard for the public's
right to the "creative commons".

To quote Lessig:

"Peace, quiet, and may terms be limited."