I don’t know about anybody else, but I always feel like the nerd invited to eat lunch with the popular kids with the USSC hears an IP case. Yesterday, the Big Dogs heard a nifty little First Amendment Copyright case that I honestly don’t know how to feel about yet. But pay attention to this one, kids. It’s a doozy. Source 1. Source 2.
Golan v. Holder is the name of this little gem and it centers around a conductor who can’t afford to play Peter and the Wolf anymore thanks to Congress yanking it (and myriad other foreign works) back from the public domain. Google, the ACLU, and the American Library are calling this an abject disaster that violates the First Amendment. The government and the MPAA say this is necessary to protect US authors overseas. And something or other about the Berne Convention. Imma go find Peter and the Wolf on YouTube right now and listen to it. Twice.
