Justices allow copyrights on foreign works

[Mitchell, Michael]

Washington (CNN) -- The Supreme Court gave its blessing Wednesday to a federal law giving copyright protection to millions of international books, music and other artistic creations that had once been in the free-access "public domain."

http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/18/justice/scotus-copyrights-foreign-works/index.html?eref=rss_latest&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_latest+%28RSS%3A+Most+Recent%29

I don't exactly understand the background of this case. Anyone know why these works were in the public domain here in the first place? Are they copyrighted overseas and the copyrights weren't being honored here? Anyone know? Seems to be another bad ruling for digital access.

Michael Mitchell
Technical Services Librarian
Brazosport College
Lake Jackson, TX
Michael.mitchell at brazosport.edu


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2012-01-18
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