In Luck's Music Library, Inc. and Moviecraft, Inc. v. Alberto Gonzales, the D.C. Circuit affirmed a lower court ruling in favor of the U.S. Attorney General on the constitutionality of § 514 of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act (URAA), codified at 17 U.S.C. § 104A. The contested section of the URAA "establishes copyrights of foreign holders whose works, though protected under the law where initially published, fell into the public domain in the United States for a variety of reasons..." Essentially, this law revoked works from the public domain and granted them copyright protection.

At issue are scores of foreign sheet music and commercial archival footage distributed by U.S. companies that operated under the assumption that a work in the public domain, stays in the public domain. Not so, said Senior Circuit Judge Williams, who listed several historical instances where the government has extended copyright protection for works that would have otherwise been part of the public domain.

The Luck's Music opinion draws many parallels between petitioners' arguments and those unsuccessfully advanced in Eldred v. Ashcroft, a 2003 U.S. Supreme Court decision which held that Congress acted within its authority and did not transgress constitutional limitations in enlarging the duration of copyrights under the Copyright Term Extension Act. [See Eldred's complete docket information]

In a telling passage, the Luck's Music decision sheds light on the impetus behind Section 514 of the URAA. "The Senate argued in support of § 514 that its adoption helped secure better foreign protection for US intellectual property and was “a significant opportunity to reduce the impact of copyright piracy on our world trade position.”" This suggests that 514 can be viewed as a bargaining chip thrown to foreign nations when the US petitioned for international adoption and enforcement of American-standard intellectual property laws.

Read in tandem with Elrded, Luck's Music further illustrates how the public domain has been reduced by contemporary IP trends favoring ownership.

Creators who sample and businesses that distribute foreign works from the public domain would be wise to verify the copyright status of their "stock" material.

Daniel H. Bromberg of Jones Day argued the cause for appellants.

John S. Koppel of the U.S. Department of Justice argued the cause for appellees.