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Copyright and the First Amendment: Comrades, Combatants, Or Uneasy Allies?

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Copyright and the First Amendment: Comrades, Combatants, Or Uneasy Allies? Copyright and the First Amendment: Comrades, Combatants, or Uneasy Allies? Joseph P. Bauer* Abstract The copyright regime and the First Amendment seek to promote the same goals. Both seek the creation and dissemination of more, better, and more diverse literary, pictorial, musical and other works. But, they use significantly different means to achieve those goals. The copyright laws afford to the creator of a work the exclusive right to reproduce, distribute, transform, and perform that work for an extended period of time. The First Amendment, on the other hand, proclaims that Congress "shall make no law . abridging the freedom of speech or of the press," thus at least nominally indicating that limitations on the reproduction and distribution of works—including the works of others—are forbidden. Courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court in Eldred v. Ashcroft, have stated that these two regimes can be reconciled in large part by some mechanisms internal to the copyright system, and in particular the fair use doctrine and the denial of copyright protection to facts and ideas. Yet, the rejection of these two defenses in a number of prominent copyright infringement actions, and the resulting unavailability of unconstrained access to important materials, illustrates that, on occasion, broader application of First Amendment protection is necessary. This Article first explores the history, goals, and values of these two regimes. It concludes that not only has First Amendment protection been denied in important cases, but this denial has likely had a chilling effect in many other instances, in which socially valuable uses of copyrighted materials have been voluntarily forsaken for fear of litigation. The Article then offers a test for greater unconstrained access to otherwise protected * Professor of Law, Notre Dame Law School. B.A. Univ. of Penn. 1965; J.D. Harvard Law School 1969. I benefitted from comments from participants at the Intellectual Property Scholars Conference at Stanford Law School and workshops at Pepperdine, Southern Methodist University, Valparaiso and William Mitchell Law Schools. I also gratefully acknowledge the comments of Professors Robert Anderson, Patricia Bellia, Lackland Bloom, Rick Garnett, Barry McDonald, Mark McKenna, Michael Murray and Jay Tidmarsh, and the assistance of Talia Bucci, Notre Dame Law School Class of 2010. 831 832 67 WASH. & LEE L. REV. 831 (2010) works. First Amendment interests should prevail: when there is a strong public interest in allowing the unauthorized use of protectable expression; when the speaker has a compelling need to use the expression itself, i.e., when paraphrasing, describing, or summarizing the work is inadequate to meet the speaker’s needs; and when there is no reasonable alternative available to obtain consent to that use. Table of Contents I. Introduction .................................................................................. 833 II. Historical Approach ..................................................................... 837 III. Addressing the Conflict ................................................................ 840 A. Goals of the Systems ............................................................. 840 1. Copyright ........................................................................ 840 2. First Amendment ............................................................ 842 B. Reactions to Conflicts ........................................................... 844 1. Minimizing the Conflict by Harmonization .................... 845 2. Internal Mechanisms ....................................................... 847 a. Protection Only for Expression ................................ 848 b. Fair Use Doctrine ..................................................... 852 c. Limited Duration ...................................................... 862 d. Merger Doctrine and Scenes à Faire ........................ 870 e. Other Internal Mechanisms ...................................... 871 C. Sometimes First Amendment Interests Trump ...................... 872 1. There Really Is a Problem .............................................. 873 2. Seeking a Solution .......................................................... 879 a. General Principles .................................................... 879 b. Identifying Criteria to Implement These Principles .................................................................. 883 (1) The Public Interest ............................................. 883 (2) Compelling Need to Use the Protected Expression .......................................................... 885 (3) Consent to Use Is Unavailable ........................... 888 (4) Specific Applications of These Principles ............................................................ 890 c. Instruction from Other Intellectual Property Regimes .................................................................... 909 IV. Conclusion .................................................................................... 914 COPYRIGHT AND THE FIRST AMENDMENT 833 I. Introduction The apparent conflict is obvious. The Copyright Clause in the Constitution provides that "[t]he Congress shall have Power . To promote the Progress of Science . by securing for limited Times to Authors . the exclusive Right to their respective Writings."1 However, the First Amendment famously provides that "Congress shall make no law . abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press."2 Because the copyright laws permit the copyright owner to enjoin others from speaking or writing,3 or copying and distributing, certain words, music, photographs, audio- visual works and so forth, and to obtain monetary relief for such unauthorized acts, has Congress not done precisely what the First Amendment seems to preclude—enacted legislation which limits the speech 4 or writing of persons other than the copyright owner? 1. U.S. CONST. art. I, § 8, cl. 8 (emphasis added). 2. U.S. CONST. amend. I (emphasis added). 3. Here, I am using the terms "speaking" and "writing" in the broadest sense, to include copying, distributing, performing and displaying a work—the exclusive rights given to the owner of copyright by 17 U.S.C. § 106(1) & (3)–(5), subject, of course, to a variety of limitations. 17 U.S.C. § 106(2) also gives the copyright owner the exclusive right to make, or to authorize others to make, "derivative works" from the underlying work. As discussed below, the scope of this right also raises serious First Amendment issues. 4. It is true that the immediate and direct cause of any abridgement of speech or writing almost always involves conduct taken at the behest of a private actor who seeks injunctive or monetary relief against alleged infringers. However, both the source of those rights and the authority for those lawsuits to enforce those rights is federal legislation. See 17 U.S.C. §§ 102–22 & 501–05 (2006) (setting out the contours of federal copyright protections). In turn, the Copyright Office of the Library of Congress affords mechanisms for the registration of copyrights. Id. §§ 408–12. Also, the federal courts have power to enter and then enforce judgments finding an infringement. Id. § 411. Finally, the in terrorem effect of the range of protections afforded to the copyright owner will often cause others to desist from using those works without the need to resort to private litigation. In recognition of the fact that harm from limitations on speech can be as severe and problematic when the cause for the restraint is a private person or entity, it is clear that the First Amendment not only operates as a limitation on the government’s restriction on speech, but also on many attempts by private parties to restrict the speech of other private parties. See, e.g., Phila. Newspapers, Inc. v. Hepps, 475 U.S. 767, 777 (1986) (noting that "the text of the First Amendment . by its terms applies only to governmental action," but concluding that similar concerns and standards apply to suit by private party); N.Y. Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254, 264 (1964) (applying the First Amendment to a private defamation action). But see Arista Records, Inc. v. Flea World, Inc., 356 F. Supp. 2d 411, 422 (D.N.J. 2005) (refusing to allow the defendant to argue that a copyright owner’s enforcement actions had a "chilling effect" on its First Amendment rights, because "the First Amendment is generally a protection of free speech against intrusion by the government, not as among and between private parties"). 834 67 WASH. & LEE L. REV. 831 (2010) Some have suggested that this conflict is more apparent than real. I will argue that at least in certain respects, this conflict is all-too-real,5 and that the very threat of a possible copyright infringement action may impermissibly deter free speech. The conflict may be resolved in a number of ways. At one end of the spectrum, one could take the view that the copyright laws are unconstitutional. Even most free speech6 maximalists7 do not take that position.8 At the other end, one could say that the copyright 5. See Universal City Studios, Inc. v. Corley, 273 F.3d 429, 458 (2d Cir. 2001) (noting that "the fundamental choice between impairing some communication and tolerating [conduct which affects copyright interests] cannot be entirely avoided"). 6. Professor Baker has argued that the freedom of speech and freedom of the press clauses protect different interests, and therefore have different implications for the interface of the copyright laws and the First Amendment. C. Edwin Baker,
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