Copyright restoration

Overview
Section 514 of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act (URAA), restored the United States copyrights of foreign authors who lost those rights to the public domain for any reason other than the expiration of a copyright term.

Constitutional challenge
In Golan v. Ashcroft, the plaintiffs challenged Section 514 &mdash; as well as the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 &mdash; under the Copyright Clause and the First Amendment. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the Government or dismissal as to each of the claims.

On appeal, the Tenth Circuit affirmed the trial court's rulings as to plaintiffs' Copyright Term Extension Act claims and plaintiffs' Copyright Clause claims, but reversed the trial court's rulings as to plaintiff's First Amendment challenge to Section 514. The Tenth Circuit remanded the case to the district court with instructions to assess whether Section 514 &mdash; which the Tenth Circuit determined interfered with plaintiffs' "First Amendment interest in using works in the public domain" &mdash; passed First Amendment scrutiny.

On remand, the district court held that removing works from the public domain violated plaintiffs' vested First Amendment interests.