Once in the Public’s Hands, Now Back in Picasso’s

[groovedaddy]

Supreme Court arguments often concern not just the narrow issue in the case but also the implications of a ruling. You sometimes catch the justices squinting, trying to see over the legal horizon.

Nine years ago, for instance, the court heard arguments in a case about whether Congress was free to add 20 years of copyright protection for works that had not yet entered the public domain.

Several justices asked about a different and even tougher question: Was Congress also free to restore copyright protection to works that had entered the public domain and become public property?

“If Congress tomorrow wants to give a copyright to a publisher solely for the purpose of publishing and disseminating Ben Jonson, Shakespeare, it can do it?” Justice Stephen G. Breyer asked a lawyer for the government.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/22/us/22bar.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha23

[dipsydoodle]

1. There's been joke situations in the past

in the 1950's two hooligans got copyright and publishing rights for Elizabeth Cotton's Freight Train which she wrote as child c. 1910.

[damntexdem]

2. Once in the public domain, now back in corporate greed's hands.

This has nothing to do with protecting the originator of a work.