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Court Finds Part of Copyright Act Unconstitutional

Posted by timothy on from the small-favors dept.

I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "A US District Court in the Southern District of California has found the Copyright Remedy Clarification Act to be unconstitutional. That act is what removes the sovereign immunity for infringement that state workers have in their official capacity, something many argued would jeopardize universities with liability for faculty infringement, not to mention other state agencies. In a rather dense legal ruling (PDF), the Court found that the Clarification Act was not a valid exercise of congressional power under the 14th Amendment. For those of you who have absolutely no idea what I just said, I recommend either being glad that a small piece of copyright law may soon bite the dust, or hoping that NYCL will explain this better."

8 of 240 comments (clear)

  1. How should I know.... by NewYorkCountryLawyer · · Score: 5, Funny

    what it means? You should have submitted it to "Ask Slashdot".

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    Ray Beckerman +5 Insightful
    1. Re:How should I know.... by alx5000 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Mmmmmm maybe you misunderstood, and he was actually referring to some other clarification source...

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      My 0.02 cents
  2. Re:woohoo! by clichescreenname · · Score: 3, Funny

    Now I know that the parent post is definitely a terrible, off topic troll of a post.. but it is also incredibly hilarious when you consider the fact that he probably typed this all out ahead of time, and then constantly reloaded slashdot in an attempt to get a horribly graphic account of shit eating to be the "frist psot" of a story.

    Now, could somebody PLEASE mod parent funny? For me?

  3. Re:Constitutional Law 101 by somersault · · Score: 4, Funny

    You mean they could bust Texas for possession?

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    which is totally what she said
  4. Ray's busy - cut him some slack by rozthepimp · · Score: 2, Funny

    "But as our resident high profile copyright lawyer..." In case you haven't been watching Ray's blog, it has been a VERY busy week, and he has evidently been doing not only the typical lawyer hours, but keeping up with a dozen or so RIAA cases, answering emails, and saving western civilization from what appears to be an increasingly out of control Richard Gabriel. Let him have Sunday evening off.

  5. Re:This subject is VASTLY more complex than you kn by kcbrown · · Score: 2, Funny

    Think of this in programming terms: In the ORIGINAL base class (constitution) there is no real way for Congress to abrogate sovereign immunity unless there is an express exception in the base class itself. However, when the 14th amendment came along LATER and amended the constitution (think of the constitution as a new inherited class with slightly different properties) it DID give Congress a window to (sometimes) abrogate a State's sovereign immunity.

    This would have gone over better if it were a car analogy...

    Here, let me try: "Think of this in car terms: In the engine computer program's original base class (constitution) ..."

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    Use 'slashdot stuff' in the subject line in any email you send me if you want to get past the spam filter.
  6. Re:Not a good thing? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny


    A used car salesman, sure, but not from the world's most powerful military.

    How do you think they got to be the world's most powerful military force? By playing fair?

  7. Re:Dog Bites Man! by Z34107 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Congress exempts itself from a lot of laws - link. Although the house.gov site puts a positive spin on this (news at 11), they're exempt from minimum wage, OSHA, the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA), and a lot of other ones.

    Funny, isn't it? Congress is exempt from nearly all provisions of the "Ethics in Government Act of 1978."

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