The US Supreme Court, while conceding that a 1998 extension of the Copyright Act might not be good public policy, has rejected the idea that the law is unconstitutional. “The 7-to-2 decision came in the court’s most closely watched intellectual property case in years, one with financial implications in the billions of dollars. A major victory for the Hollywood studios and other big corporate copyright holders that had lobbied strenuously for the extension, the ruling had the effect of keeping the original Mickey Mouse as well as other icons of midcentury American culture from slipping into the public domain.”
Blog
For The Majority
Read the majority opinion.
Costly Bite – “Vampires” Closing On Broadway
“Dance of the Vampires” opened on Dec. 9 to “lukewarm reviews and mediocre daily sales. The producers had hoped to fight the show’s poor critical reception with new television advertising, but the last two weeks proved particularly difficult, as the weekly box office take dipped below $500,000. (The show’s weekly running costs are about $600,000.) At $12 million, ‘Vampires’ ranks among the most expensive losers in Broadway history, taking its place alongside famous flops like ‘Capeman’ and ‘Carrie’.”
Justice Stevens’ Dissent
“If Congress may not expand the scope of a patent monopoly, it also may not extend the life of a copyright beyond its expiration date. Accordingly, insofar as the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, 112 Stat. 2827, purported to extend the life of unexpired copyrights, it is invalid.”
Justice Breyer’s Dissent
“The economic effect of this 20-year extension – the longest blanket extension since the Nation’s founding is to make the copyright term not limited, but virtually perpetual. Its primary legal effect is to grant the extended term not to authors, but to their heirs, estates, or corporate successors. And most importantly, its practical effect is not to promote, but to inhibit, the progress of ‘Science’ by
which word the Framers meant learning or knowledge.”
Top Editor: Serious About Reinventing New York Times Culture Coverage
Howell Raines, the executive editor of The New York Times, has made it his mission to reinvigorate the paper’s cultural coverage. “He called the culture section the ‘crown jewel’ of the paper and added: ‘It is as much a part of our signature identity as the foreign report’.” Already the changes have begun…
Americans Buy West End Theatre
Two American brothers – Ted and Norman Tulchin – have bought London’s Playhouse Theatre. “The sale comes as London theatreland battles with a drop in audiences, with fewer US tourists coming to the capital.”
Plan To Subsidize West End Theatre Tickets
A plan by the mayor of London to spend £350,000 on subsidizing theatre tickets for Londoners, is being welcomed by the theatres. “Just one third of the 12 million people who pay to see plays, musicals, dance and operas in London’s theatreland actually live in London. The tickets, which can cost up to £40, are being offered at reduced prices of £10, £15 and £20 between 15 January and 29 March.”
Kantor To Head NYT’s Arts & Leisure?
Word is that “Jodi Kantor, New York editor of Web magazine Slate – has emerged as the top candidate to become editor of The New York Times ‘Arts & Leisure’ section.” Kantor is 27 and has been at Slate for four years. The move signals NYT executive editor Howell Raines’ seriousness about a new direction for the paper’s culture page.
The Debate That Wouldn’t End
“New York’s wide-ranging civic conversation about the World Trade Center site degenerated into rhetoric that ricocheted off on all sorts of tangents at the start of the second round of public hearings on the fate of Ground Zero.” Officials in charge of the process seem to be trapped by the dual expectations of the public that a) public opinion will not be ignored, and b) something will eventualy rise on the WTC site, even though whatever it is will not come close to satisfying all constituencies.