Stanford Center for Internet and Society

Wired's Katie Dean has written a nice article on Kahle v. Ashcroft. You can find the article here, and more information about the Kahle case here.

The Internet Archive and the Prelinger Archive have filed their opposition to the government's motion to dismiss in Kahle v. Ashcroft, a case challenging the constitutionality of Congress's removal from the copyright laws of our traditional system of formalities (i.e., registration, notice, renewal). CIS's Larry Lessig, Jennifer Granick and Chris Sprigman represent plaintiffs. Here's the opening paragraphs of our brief:

This case is about the speech-related harms caused when Congress radically changed the nature of American copyright law. For the first 186 years of our Republic, copyright laws established an "opt-in" system, one in which copyrights were secured only to those who took steps to claim them. In 1976 and 1989, Congress inverted this regime, transforming copyright law into an "opt-out" system, one in which rights are granted automatically and indiscriminately unless disclaimed.

The Internet Archive and the Prelinger Archive have filed their opposition to the government’s motion to dismiss in Kahle v. Ashcroft, a case challenging the constitutionality of Congress’s removal from the copyright laws of our traditional system of formalities (i.e., registration, notice, renewal). CIS's Larry Lessig, Jennifer Granick and Chris Sprigman represent the plaintiffs.

The government will file its reply on October 8, and a hearing in front of Judge Maxine Chesney (U.S. District Court, Northern District of Calif.) is scheduled for October 29. You can learn more about Kahle v. Ashcroft here. For those interested in the broader issues raised by the demise of mandatory copyright formalities, you may wish to take a look at an article by Chris Sprigman, Reform(aliz)ing Copyright, that will be published later this year in the Stanford Law Review.