FINDERS KEEPERS LOSERS WEEPERS Sara Adkins Intro to Library Media 6320

Golan v. Holder 2011  Golan a music professor and conductor at the University of Denver along with other educators, archivists, and perfomers  Holder, U.S. Attorney General  Golan feels that the Uruguary Round Agreements Act violates First Amendment of the Constitution

Foreign works in the Public Domain Copyright issue and law  Before 1994 URAA foreign works were in public domain  Famous works such as Alfred Hitchcock films, books by C. S. Lewis, and music by Stravinsky and countless more works  After the URAA these works were taken from the public domain and placed back under copyright protection, no longer freely available to us

URAA of 1994 Previous ruling  Passed in 1994  Gave American works protection in other countries, the U.S. had to match foreign copyright laws

U.S. Supreme Court No ruling yet  Went before the Chief Justices this year  Chief Justice Roberts stated “One day I can perform Shostakovich; Congress does something: The next day I can’t. Doesn’t that present a serious First Amendment problem?”

Implications for Libraries Librarians and patrons  Works that were being digitized and shared freely and inexpensively were all of a sudden copyrighted after the URAA in 1994  If ruled in favor of Golan, these famous foreign works will again be apart of the public domain.  Librarians can again digitize and share to many patrons very easily

Parry, M. (2011). Supreme Court Takes Up Scholars’ Rights. Chronicles of Higher Education, 57(38), A3-A4. Parry, M. (2011). Supreme Court Hears Arguments and Pleas for Picasso, in Professor’s Copyright Case. Chronicles of Higher Education, 58(8), A24. Pike, G. H. (2011). Copyright’s Ever-Changing Landscape. Information Today, 28(5), Wikipedia. (2011) Retrieved from References