Case Categories: Copyright and Free Expression

The Supreme Court acknowledged the compatibility of copyright and free expression in Harper and Row v. Nation Enterprises (1985), when Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote, “The Framers intended copyright itself to be the engine of free expression. By establishing a marketable right to the use of one’s expression, copyright supplies the economic incentive to create and disseminate ideas.”

Tension does exist, however, between copyright and the First Amendment, as copyright owners often seek to assert their property rights and thereby limit the dissemination of information. Copyright law attempts to reduce this tension in part through fair use, a safety-valve concept codified by the Copyright Act of 1976.

Following are cases involving copyright and the First Amendment.

• Bobbs-Merrill Co. v. Straus (1908)

  In Bobbs-Merrill Co. v. Straus (1908), the Supreme Court said authors could not control the price of subsequent sales of a book by copyrighting the book...

• Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc. (1994)

  Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc. (1994) protected a parody from copyright infringement, illustrating how the Court viewed the relationship between the First...

• Eldred v. Ashcroft (2003)

  Eldred v. Ashcroft (2003) said that the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 did not violate the First Amendment. Copyright and the First Amendment were...

• Folsom v. Marsh (C.C.D. Mass.) (1841)

  Although Folsom v. Marsh (C.C.D. Mass. 1841) did not reference the First Amendment, it was an early copyright case which said a book violated fair use by...

• Golan v. Holder (2012)

  Golan v. Holder upheld a U.S. copyright law against First Amendment challenges. The law had taken previously available foreign works out of the public domain...

• Harper and Row v. Nation Enterprises (1985)

  Harper & Row v. Nation Enterprises (1985) ruled that copyright infringement of the unpublished memoir of Gerald Ford was not protected by the First Amendment...

• San Francisco Arts and Athletics v. U.S. Olympic Committee (1987)

  San Francisco Arts & Athletics v. the U.S. Olympics Committee (1987) said there was no First Amendment violation in giving exclusive use of the the word '...

• Wheaton v. Peters (1834)

  Wheaton v. Peters (1834) was one of the first cases to deal with copyrights, the protection of which is an exception to general First Amendment protections...