Preemption and the Constitution be damned
On one of the first days of class, my torts professor told the story of how the A students become professors, the B students corporate lawyers, I forget what the C students do, and the D students become politicians.
Well, that story makes lots of sense when you read an article like this one: Tech firms fail to squelch database bill.
In the article, Declan tells us that the House Judiciary committe has approved an intellectual property bill that seeks to protect databases, which are generally compilations of facts.
There are several things wrong with what the committee has done:
1. IP Law does not protect facts (and there is a Supreme Court case that says so).
2. If you try to protect facts using IP Law, specifically Copyright, which exisiting law says you can not, then you have been preempted from entering the field and are out of luck. This is called the doctrine of pre-emption and it is derived from the U.S. Constitution's supremacy clause.
I suggest that Rep. Howard Coble and the House Judiciary committee hit the books and brush up on their IP and Constitutional Law before proceeding further.
See also: Chamber urges House to oppose H.R. 3261 "Database and Collections of Information Misappropriation Act" | Why the Contractual Protection of Ideas is Preempted by Federal Copyright [pdf] | Feist Publications, Inc. v. Rural Telephone Service Co., 499 U.S. 340 (1991) | Frank Field: "The notion that Congress is priming to overturn the principles in Feist is just horrifying." | biplog on 3261
EFF: Keep facts free!
Well, that story makes lots of sense when you read an article like this one: Tech firms fail to squelch database bill.
In the article, Declan tells us that the House Judiciary committe has approved an intellectual property bill that seeks to protect databases, which are generally compilations of facts.
There are several things wrong with what the committee has done:
1. IP Law does not protect facts (and there is a Supreme Court case that says so).
2. If you try to protect facts using IP Law, specifically Copyright, which exisiting law says you can not, then you have been preempted from entering the field and are out of luck. This is called the doctrine of pre-emption and it is derived from the U.S. Constitution's supremacy clause.
I suggest that Rep. Howard Coble and the House Judiciary committee hit the books and brush up on their IP and Constitutional Law before proceeding further.
See also: Chamber urges House to oppose H.R. 3261 "Database and Collections of Information Misappropriation Act" | Why the Contractual Protection of Ideas is Preempted by Federal Copyright [pdf] | Feist Publications, Inc. v. Rural Telephone Service Co., 499 U.S. 340 (1991) | Frank Field: "The notion that Congress is priming to overturn the principles in Feist is just horrifying." | biplog on 3261
EFF: Keep facts free!
