11. Why is it important to file this lawsuit now?

The move to unconditional copyright came just at a time when digital technologies like the Internet could enable the archiving, preservation and reuse of content at a level never imagined before. For 186 years, American law limited the grant of copyright to those authors who claimed the need for copyright protection. But because of the indiscriminate nature of copyright today, the burden of copyright regulation extends to work whether or not the author or other rightsholder has any need for continuing protection. That unnecessary burden blocks the cultivation of our culture and the spread of knowledge.

12. So what are you asking the court to do?

The plaintiffs in this case, the Internet Archive and its Chairman, Brewster Kahle, and the Prelinger Film Archive (formally, Prelinger Associates, Inc.) and its President, Richard Prelinger, are filing suit seeking a declaratory judgment that the current system of unconditional copyright is unconstitutional. Plaintiffs contend, among other things, that unconditional copyright creates unreasonable burdens on speech in violation of the First Amendment, and creates effectively perpetual copyright terms in violation of the Progress Clause (the provision in the Constitution that grants Congress power to legislate with respect to copyrights and patents).

13. If you win, how could copyright law change?

There are many ways Congress could change the copyright law back to a conditional system and still remain in compliance with the Berne Convention. One way would be to re-impose formalities for all works of U.S. authors - these are most works published in the U.S., and Berne doesn't prohibit signatory nations from imposing formalities on their own authors. Another would be to pass the Public Domain Enhancement Act, which would impose a tiny renewal fee designed to move unused copyrighted work into the public domain. The PDEA also wouldn't violate Berne, because it would apply only to works of U.S. authors.

14. What's the relationship of this case to the PDEA?

Of course if the PDEA were passed, that might moot the necessity of this case. But so far, we have not seen substantial support in Congress for the PDEA, which makes necessary our resort to the courts. [Stanford Cyberlaw Clinic] I think it's clear that copyright owners have obtained too much power and that the public, and the public domain, have suffered as a result. Unconditional copyrights - those that require no action or effort from the owner to maintain the copyright - are particularly detrimental to th epublic domain. Whether this is a legally convincing approach is another matter.