The NY DA has, no great surprise, filed an appeal of Judge Baer's dismissal of the case against Jean Martignon for selling bootleg recordings. J.D. Martignon, a NYC record dealer and owner of the Midnight Record store in Manhattan, was indicted under a 1994 law that made it a crime to ever sell a bootleg recording of a live performance. The problem is that the law didn't specify a time limit; thus, it gave live recordings perpetual protection, something that Martignon's lawyers successfully argued was unconstitutional.

Remember that SCOTUS, in upholding the CTEA, noted that even though the law provides for very long copyright protection it is still time-limited and thus technically not unconstitutional. However, the anti-bootlegging statute (formally 18 U.S.C. sec 2319A) lacked this and thus was found to be a violation of Congress' copyright-granting authority.

Coverage: MTV SF Gate