Law Commons^™

Conflicts Between Copyright And The First Amendment After Harper & Row, Publishers V. Nation Enterprises, David E. Shipley

Scholarly Works

The relationship between copyright and the first amendment has been discussed repeatedly in the past fifteen years. A free speech privilege has been asserted as a defense in many copyright infringement actions, and the topic has been the subject of lively academic debate. Although no court has held an infringement claim to be defeated by a first amendment defense, considerable attention has been paid to the potential conflict between copyright and free speech interests. Commentators have speculated that in some situations copyright protection could impermissibly abridge the first amendment. The United States Supreme Court's decision in Harper & Row, Publishers …