In this Essay, I begin in Part I by framing the issues in Eldred v. Ashcroft by discussing the history of copyright legislation in general and the CTEA in particular and then summarizing the procedural history of Eldred v. Ashcroft. I turn next in Part II to a detailed investigation of the text of the Intellectual Property Clause, with a special emphasis on the interpretation of the Clause by the first Congress and early judicial decisions. Three elements of the constitutional text have important implications for Eldred. First, the Copyright Clause requires that Congress pursue the goal of promoting the progress of science. Second, the meaning of science that best coheres with the constitutional text and the original understanding can be glossed as systematic knowledge or learning of enduring value. Third, if the limited times restriction is to impose a meaningful limit on Congress's power, the most plausible constructions are inconsistent with either a term of life plus seventy years or with retroactive extensions, *4 or both. In Part III, I provide a reader's guide to the debate over the issues in Eldred v. Ashcroft, organizing some of the arguments made by the contributors to this symposium around the questions on which the Supreme Court will hear argument. Part IV concludes with an overview of the difficult choice the Supreme Court must make.
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Wednesday 12 of August, 2009 17:25:58 GMT by Unknown
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Wednesday 12 of August, 2009 17:25:58 GMT by Unknown