URAA Held Unconstitutional

We're thrilled to report the Court has upheld our challenge to the constitutionality of the URAA's restoration of copyrights in public domain works. Today, the Court granted our summary judgment motion, holding the URAA violates the First Amendment insofar as it suppresses parties' rights to keep using works they exploited when those works were in the public domain. Needless to say, this is a big deal. It is the first time a court has held any part of the Copyright Act violates the First Amendment and the first time any court has placed specific constitutional limits on the government's ability to erode the public domain. It is also the culmination of a lot of hard work by a lot of CIS lawyers dating back to 2001, including myself, Larry Lessig, Chris Sprigman, Edward Lee, Jennifer Granick, Lauren Gelman, Colette Vogele, Julie Ahrens, Chris Ridder, Sarah Pearson and others. I expect there will be more to come, including a return to the Tenth Circuit. Look for updates here. In the meantime, Judge Babcock's order is attached below.

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