Copyright Liability of States and the Eleventh Amendment, June 1988

Download or read book Copyright Liability of States and the Eleventh Amendment, June 1988 written by Library of Congress. Copyright Office and published by . This book was released on 1988 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study examines the tension between federal copyright law, which is exclusively enforced for federal courts, and the Eleventh Amendment, which generally prohibits federal courts from entertaining citizen suits brought against a state. The first of four parts of the report describes recent court decisions on copyright infringement by states which prompted the request for the Copyright Office to conduct this study. The second part describes the materials in 44 public comments received in response to a Copyright Office Request for Information on states' immunity from suit for money damages in copyright infringement cases that was published in the Federal Register. The legal interpretation of the Eleventh Amendment, which makes up the major part of the report, is presented in the third part. This interpretation is divided into three subsections: the historic development of Eleventh Amendment law; the Eleventh Amendment in the twentieth century; and application of the Eleventh Amendment in copyright infringement suits against the states. In the fourth part, it is concluded that, although Congress intended to hold states responsible under federal copyright law, the present state of the law will not be sufficiently clear on how the appropriate remedy against states can and will be secured for copyright owners until certain points of law have been decided in currently pending litigation. Appended materials include a copy of the Request for Information, a discussion of the English common law concept of sovereign immunity, and a Congressional Research Service report on the waiver of Eleventh Amendment immunity in individual states. (EW)