From the Dead Sea Scrolls to the Digital Millennium; Recent Developments in Copyright Law

Abstract

This Article reviews and comments upon selected developments in copyright law during the period of September 1999 through August 2000. Copyright developments during this period trace the rapid digitization and globalization of copyright markets. They also reflect new legal regimes, including the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA") and the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property ("TRIPS"), designed to bolster copyright in the face of digitization and globalization. This Article briefly examines each reported case concerning the DMCA. It also reviews the World Trade Organization dispute settlement panel ruling that provisions of Section 115(1) of the United States Copyright Act violate TRIPS.

This past year has also seen numerous constitutional challenges to copyright law, including several First Amendment challenges. This Article chides courts for generally failing to apply the O?Brien test for content-neutral regulation to First Amendment challenges to copyright. Concomitantly, it lauds the court in Universal City Studios v. Reimerdes for applying O?Brien to defendants? First Amendment challenge to the DMCA.

The Article also reviews a number of cases concerning more traditional copyright issues, as well as a case spanning back to the parchment millennium, the Israeli Supreme Court decision in the Dead Seas Scrolls litigation.