Supreme Court Updates

Golan v. Holder
A few weeks ago, arguments were held before the Supreme Court in the Golan v. Holder case. The case challenges whether Congress has the ability to grant copyright protection to works that were previously in the public domain (See my previous post on case).

A copy of the transcript is available on the Supreme Court's website.

The Court seemed very engaged in the questioning for this matter which contained numerous hypotheticals, questions of First Amendment scrutiny and whether the government had already granted copyright protection to works that previously did not have any with analogies to 1790’s law and a moment of levity from Justice Breyer.

Vernor v. Autodesk
Back from its summer vacation, the Court denied certification to another copyright case Vernor v. Autodesk.

The case was summarized in previous blog entries:
Battles in Seattle Part 2 of 3: Vernor v. Autodesk
Battles in Seattle Vernor v. Autodesk Decision

This means that the Ninth Circuit decision will stand, thereby making software licenses not subject to the first sale doctrine under Section 109 of the Copyright Act.