Law Commons^™

Constitutional Obstacles? Reconsidering Copyright Protection For Pre-1972 Sound Recordings, Eva E. Subotnik, June M. Besek

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

The typical complaint about intellectual property laws is that they are sluggish in responding to technological change. An unfolding question in the contemporary era, however, is the degree to which the threat of constitutional challenge will lead Congress to further adhere to the status quo. In the wake of the patent law overhaul several years ago, for example, the wisdom and scope of those amendments were widely debated, but concern about their constitutional soundness was also expressed in some quarters. Likewise, the latter concern is in play with respect to a proposed amendment of the law that applies to …