Scrutinizing The URAA

Two years ago, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals broke new ground. It held the URAA's restoration of copyrights in public domain works departed from the "traditional contours" of copyright by contravening the "bedrock principle of copyright law that works in the public domain remain in the public domain." In doing so, the Tenth Circuit became the first court in the country to hold that ordinary First Amendment scrutiny applies to an amendment of the Copyright Act. Now we're back before the District Court on remand to determine whether the URAA can survive First Amendment scrutiny. Each side has cross-moved for summary judgment on that issue. The briefing on that issue is now complete, and each brief is attached below. No hearing date has been set.