After their case was dismissed in District Court last November, Brewster Kahle and Richard Prelinger promised to appeal. They filed their appellate brief yesterday in the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The brief lists these three Issues on Appeal:
Whether the change from an "opt-in" to an "opt-out" system of copyright alters a "traditional contour[] of copyright," requiring "further First Amendment scrutiny" under the standard established in Eldred v. Ashcroft, 537 U.S. 186, 123 S. Ct. 769
(2003).
Whether the current term of copyright is so long as to be effectively perpetual.
Whether a statute that extends copyright terms that have not, and will not, pass through a filter of renewal violates the "limited Times" condition of Article I, sec. 8, cl. 8 ("the Progress Clause").
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
