[A2k] IP-Watch: Golan Case May Put US In Violation Of International Copyright Treaties

[Richard M Stallman]

      Well it looks like the USPTO and DOJ have stepped in it this time
    around.

As far as I know, the PTO has nothing to do with this.  It is
concerned with patents, an (separately) with registered trademarks,
but it has nothing at all to do with copyrights.  The term "IP" tends
to lead people to expect these laws to be similar, but they aren't.

The Supreme Court has ruled several times that it is unconstitutional
to put something under copyright once it has fallen into the public
domain.

The US certainly should withdraw from TRIPES (Trade-Restricting
Impediments to Production, Education and Science), and from the WTO as
a whole.  Every country should do so, since the main effect of the WTO
is to give the megacorporations more power and turn democracy into a
sham.  But I think the US government is already so subservient to
business that it will find some way (no matter how dishonest it may
be) to disregard the constitution.