Media Companies Money Was Well Spent After All.

Supreme Court OKs Copyright Extension

“The U.S. Supreme Court upheld on Wednesday a 1998 law extending copyright protection by 20 years, delaying when creative works such as Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse cartoons, F. Scott Fitzgerald's novels and George Gershwin's songs become public property.

The 7-2 ruling was a victory for supporters of the law, including large media companies and song publishers that argued the longer term was needed to protect a vital industry that contributes more than $500 billion to the U.S. economy.

It dealt a defeat to an Internet publisher and others who challenged the law for limiting free speech and for harming the creative process by locking up material they said should be in the public domain for all to use without charge.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote for the court majority that the U.S. Congress in adopting the law acted within its authority and did not exceed constitutional limits. She also said the law does not violate constitutional free-speech protections.” [CNET News.com]

What I'd like to know is if the Bono Extension doesn't exceed constitutional limits, what does? What is to prevent Disney from asking for another extension? How does this madness ever end?

Will gave me the heads up on this, including the original notice from Lessig's blog and now an AP story. The decision itself still hasn't shown up online.

Update: I came out of a meeting to find that Larry Lessig has posted the opinion online (PDF). I'd also like to take issue with those sites using a headline that reads “Lessig lost Eldred,” because Lessig is the last person in the world that should shoulder any blame here. How about “Supremes lost [the point of] Eldred” or “American public loses Eldred” or “Your grandkids lose [all of the creative wealth they would have had access to because of] Eldred.”

And if you buy the “harmonization” argument the Justices used to justify this travesty, doesn't the mean that Bush should be signing the Kyoto Accord later today?

[The Shifted Librarian]

I briefly read the majority and dissenting opinions and found it curious. My opinion is that the majority opinion did not like the several areas associated with the law but did not find the law unconstitutional. The “harmonization” was particularly wimpish.

The dissenting opinion written by Justice Stevens argued that the Congress could not extend the expiration date of a patent or a copyright because patents and copyrights are issued for a limited time. The primary objective of a patent or copyright is to promote science and arts. The conclusion is that the sooner the art or innovation enters into the public domain the better.

A second dissenting opinion written by Justice Breyer was a little more practical. It argued that the “Bono Act” extended copyrights to a point where they will never enter into the public domain and will primarily benefit the heirs of the innovator or artist. Since the law primarily benfits private interests rather than public interests it is unconstitutional.

I had to get a fax out to the Social Security Administration. They had expired my PIN which I need to enter W2/W3 data online. The screen told me to re-register but wouldn't let me do it. I finally called the SSA and Gloria said I needed to send her a fax asking for the PIN on company stationary. I decided this was as good a time as any to check out the Shared Fax feature of SBS. There is very little to configure on the server and Harry's book says all that is needed. It is a different story on the W2K and Windows XP clients.

1. The shared fax driver is installed from the client disk on W2K so everything is cool as long as you have your outlook contacts. This is where I found out that I needed to go into Outlook 2002 and right click on the public contact list and select Properties. Go to the Outlook Address Book tab and make sure there is check mark to show this folder as an e-mail address folder. To view the queue you need to go the Shared Fax console which is located under Programs-Microsoft Shared Fax Client.
2. The Microsoft Shared Fax Client is not installed on Windows XP since you should use the fax client provided by XP. So if you have the fax client already installed, all you need to do is search the Active directory for printers that start with the word “shared” and then double click on it to connect. This creates a shared fax object in the Printers and Faxes screen. To check the fax queue and archive you can double click on this object. To view old faxes along with the new faxes you need to move the files over to the server if you want everyone to view them. You should put them in the sent items directory for “All Users”. I thought the import feature in the XP fax console would do the job but it does not move the files to the server.