Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Government interest

Terrible News: Court Says It's Okay To Remove Content From The Public Domain And Put It Back Under Copyright
On Monday, the appeals court reversed the lower court's ruling and said there's no problem with the First Amendment because copyright law "addresses a substantial or important governmental interest." This is, plainly speaking, ridiculous. The argument effectively says that the government can violate the basic principles of the First Amendment any time it wants, so long as it shows a "substantial or important government interest." But that makes no sense. The whole point of the First Amendment was to protect citizens' interests against situations where the government's interests went against citizens' interests. It should never make sense to judge a First Amendment claim on whether the government has "substantial or important" interests.


Read that whole analysis if you really want to be upset about the fragility of your basic rights. And also keep in mind how often we've seen "substantial or important" government interests dovetail with those of BP, for example.

No comments:

Post a Comment