Eldred v. Ashcroft

Legal Documents: Supreme Court

Documents relating to the Supreme Court case.

Petition for Certiorari:

• Plaintiffs File Petition for Certiorari to Supreme Court, October 11, 2001 (PDF) - Eric Eldred and fellow plaintiffs asked the Supreme Court to hear arguments in the case and to rule that the First Amendment requires greater constitutional scrutiny of copyright law.
• Amicus brief of 21 copyrigyht law professors in support of Eldred's petition for certiorari (PDF) (HTML)
• Amicus brief of constitutional law professors in support of Eldred's petition for certiorari (PDF) (HTML)
• Amicus brief of library associations in support of Eldred's petition for certiorari (PDF) (HTML)
• Amicus brief of Eagle Forum and Cato Institute in support of Eldred's petition for certiorari (PDF) (HTML)
• Amicus brief of Internet Archive in support of Eldred's petition for certiorari (PDF) (HTML)
• Government brief opposing Supreme Court review (PDF) (HTML)
• Petitioners' Reply Brief, December 20, 2001 (PDF)

Supreme Court Grants Certiorari, February 19, 2002
The Supreme Court has announced it will hear our challenge to the Copyright Term Extension Act.

Supreme Court Opening Briefs Filed May 20, 2002:

• Brief for Petitioners: Eric Eldred, Eldritch Press, Higginson Book Company, Jill A. Crandall, Tri-Horn International, Luck's Music Library, Inc., Edwin F. Kalmus & Co., Inc., American Film Heritage Association, Moviecraft, Inc., and Dover Publications, Inc.

  By Lawrence Lessig, Kathleen M. Sullivan, Alan B. Morrison, Edward Lee, Charles Nesson, Jonathan L. Zittrain, William W. Fisher, Charles Fried, Geoffrey Stewart, Donald Ayer, Robert Ducatman, and Daniel Bromberg

• We have the support of numerous amici ("friends of the court"):
  • College Art Association, Visual Resources Association, National Humanities Alliance, Consortium of College and University Media Centers and National Initiative for a Networked Cultural Heritage, Jeffrey P. Cunard, Bruce P. Keller, Christopher J. Robinson, Rebecca Tushnet
  • 5 Constitutional Law Professors, Jack M. Balkin, Yochai Benkler, Burt Neuborne, Robert Post, Jed Rubenfeld
  • Eagle Forum Education & Legal Defense Fund and Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, Phyllis Schlafly, Karen Tripp
  • 17 Economists, Roy T. Englert, Jr.

    George A. Akerlof, Kenneth J. Arrow, Timothy F. Bresnahan, James M. Buchanan, Ronald H. Coase, Linda R. Cohen, Milton Friedman, Jerry R. Green, Robert W. Hahn, Thomas W. Hazlett, C. Scott Hemphill, Robert E. Litan, Roger G. Noll, Richard Schmalensee, Steven Shavell, Hal R. Varian, and Richard J. Zeckhauser

  • Free Software Foundation, Eben Moglen
  • Hal Roach Studios and Michael Agee, H. Jefferson Powell, David Lange
  • Intel Corporation (in partial support), James M. Burger, David J. Wittenstein, Mary Teresa A. Dowd, Jeffrey T. Lawrence
  • 53 Intellectual Property Law Professors , Jessica Litman, Jon Weinberg and Dennis Karjala

    Jessica Litman, Dennis S. Karjala, Keith Aoki, Stephen R. Barnett, Margreth Barrett, Ann Bartow, Tom W. Bell, Paul Schiff Berman, Dan L. Burk, Margaret Chon, Richard Chused, Julie E. Cohen , Kenneth D. Crews, Robert Denicola, F. Jay Dougherty, Rochelle C. Dreyfuss, Christine Haight Farley, Eric M. Freedman, Laura N. Gasaway, Shubha Ghosh, Llewellyn Joseph Gibbons, Paul J. Heald, Steven D. Jamar, John Kidwell, Robert A. Kreiss, Lew Kurlantzick, Marshall A Leaffer, Joseph P. Liu, Lydia Pallas Loren, Michael J. Madison, Peter W. Martin, Willajeanne McLean, Charles R. McManis, Robert P. Merges, Michael J. Meurer, Neil Weinstock Netanel, Francis M. Nevins, Dawn C. Nunziato, Robert L. Oakley, Ruth Gana Okediji, Maureen A. O'Rourke, David G. Post, Margaret Jane Radin, R. Anthony Reese, John Rothchild, Pamela Samuelson, David J. Seipp, David E. Shipley, David E. Sorkin, J. Russell VerSteeg, Eugene Volokh, Sarah K. Wiant, Diane L. Zimmerman

  • Internet Archive, Prelinger Archives, and Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, Deirdre K. Mulligan, Jason M. Schultz, Mark Lemley, Jennifer M. Urban, Steven M. Harris
  • 15 Library Associations, Arnold P. Lutzker, Carl H. Settlemeyer III

    American Association of Law Libraries, American Historical Association, American Library Association, Art Libraries Society of North America, Association for Recorded Sound Collections, Association of Research Libraries, Council on Library and Information Resources, International Association of Jazz Record Collectors, Medical Library Association, Midwest Archives Conference, Music Library Association, National Council on Public History, Society for American Music, Society of American Archivists, and Special Libraries Association

  • National Writers Union et al., Peter Jaszi

    National Writers Union, Charles Baxter, Wendell Berry, Guy Davenport, William Gass, Patricia Hampl, Eva Hoffman, Ursula K. Leguin, Barry Lopez, Peter Matthiessen, Jack Miles, David Foster Wallace, Lawrence Golan, Ronald Hall, Richard Kapp, John Mcdonough, The United States Public Policy Committee for the Association of Computing Machinery, Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, The Apache Software Foundation, The Domain Name Rights Coalition, The Center for The Public Domain, Public Knowledge, The Digital Future Coalition, The Public Domain Research Corporation, The Center for Book Culture, Litnet, The Computer and Communications Industry Association, and The Consumer Electronics Association

  • Tyler T. Ochoa, Mark Rose, Edward C. Walterscheid, Organization of American Historians, H-Net, Tyler T. Ochoa
  • Malla Pollack
  • Progressive Intellectual Property Law Association and Union for the Public Domain(in partial support), Michael H. Davis
  • Petitioners consent to the filing of all amicus briefs.
  • The role of an amicus brief

Supreme Court Briefs in Opposition:

• Government Response Brief - filed August 5, 2002
• Government amici:
• American Intellectual Property Law Association, (Cowan, Liebowitz & Latman, PC) (Olsen & Bear, LLP) (Sidley Austin Brown & Wood LLP)
• ASCAP, BMI, et al., Paul Weiss, Morrison & Foerster

  American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, Association of Independent Music Publishers, Broadcast Music, Inc., Church Music Publishers Association, Music Publishers' Association of the United States, and National Music Publishers' Association, Inc.

• Amsong, Inc. (Shukat Arrow Hafer & Weber, LLP)
• AOL Time Warner, Inc. (Kirkland & Ellis)
• Association of American Publishers et al., Proskauer Rose LLP

  Association of American Publishers, Amberson Holdings LLC, Richard Avedon, The George Balanchine Trust, Peter Bartok, Boosey Hawkes, Inc., The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc., European-American Music Corp., The George Gershwin Family Trust, The Leonore S. Gershwin Trust for the Benefit of the IRA and Leonore S. Gershwin Philanthropic Fund, The Leonore S. Gershwin Trust for the Benefit of the Library of Congress, The Keith Harin Foundation, The Frederick Loewe Foundation, Inc., David Mamet, Glen Roven, and the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music

• The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc. et al., Meyer & Klipper, PLLC

  The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc.; CCH Incorporated; Houghton-Mifflin Company, Inc.; The McGraw-Hill Companies; Reed Elsevier, Inc.; The Software & Information Industry Association

• Symphonic and Concert Composers, Fred Koenigsberg, White & Case

  Jack Beeson, Chen Yi, John Corigliano, John Duffy, Harold Farberman, Philip Glass, Adolphus Hailstork, Jennifer Higdon, Libby Larsen, Tania Leon, Stephen Paulus, George Rochberg, Ned Rorem, Augusta Read Thomas, Melinda Wagner and Richard Wernick

• Directors Guild of America et al., Bredhoff & Kaiser PLLC

  Directors Guild of America, American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, Screen Actors Guild, Inc., Writers Guild of America, East, and Writers Guild of America, West, Inc.

• Dr. Seuss Enterprises, L.P. et al., Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrigch LLP

  Dr. Seuss Enterprises, L.P., Allene White, Madeleine Bemelmans, and Barbara Bemelmans A.K.A. Barbara Bemelmans Marciano

• Senator Orrin G. Hatch
• Intellectual Property Owners Association, Arnold & Porter
• International Coalition for Copyright Protection, Eric Lieberman, Gregory Silbert
• Motion Picture Association of America, Simon Barsky, Seth Waxman
• The Nashville Songwriters Association International, (Sukin Rush Law Group)
• New York Intellectual Property Law Association, (Fitzpatrick, Cella, Harper & Scinto)
• Recording Artists Coalition (Berliner, Corcoran & Rowe, LLP)
• Recording Industry Association of America (Jenner & Block, LLC)
• New York Law School Professor Edward Samuels (local copy)
• House Judiciary Committee Members, O'Melveny & Myers

  Representatives F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr., John Conyers, Jr., Howerd Coble, and Howard L. Berman

• Songwriters Guild of America, Floyd Abrams, Cahill Gordon & Reindel

Reply Brief for the Petitioners September 4, 2002

Oral Argument before the United States Supreme Court is scheduled for October 9, 2002.