Internet/Peer-to-Peer

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Internet/Peer-to-Peer

Eagle Forum supports the "peer-to-peer" model for political expression and citizen activism on the internet as well as in older media such as fax machines, telephone trees and the mail.

We oppose efforts by Hillary Clinton and her friends to set up "gatekeepers" on the internet.

We oppose the misuse of copyright law by Hollywood movie studios, record labels, educational publishers, and mainstream media to prevent the sharing of files over the internet.

We oppose legislation that would give databases legal protection similar copyright. Data, databases, lists, and facts cannot be copyrighted. The law and anything that has the force of law (such as local building codes and Medicare billing codes) cannot be copyrighted.

Eagle Forum files amicus brief in Eldred case.

This case challenges the constitutionality of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998, which extended the term of copyrights for 20 additional years, providing a billion-dollar windfall to Disney, whose copyright on Mickey Mouse was about to expire.

Read text of Eagle Forum's briefs:
Filed May 20, 2002 - Adobe Acrobat (PDF) Format
Filed December 13, 2001 - MS-Word Format
Filed June 6, 2000 - Adobe Acrobat (PDF) Format

Archives of other briefs and decisions in this case.
O P E N L A W: Eldred v. Ashcroft
Eldred v. Ashcroft

Oral Argument in the U.S. Supreme Court will be held in the fall of 2002.

Eagle Forum files amicus brief in Veeck case.

Read text of Eagle Forum's brief:

Filed Oct. 31, 2001- Adobe Acrobat (PDF) Format

On Oct. 21, 2002, Eagle Forum Education & Legal Defense Fund filed an amicus curiae brief before the U.S. Supreme Court in Veeck v. SBCCI. We oppose SBCCI's petition for certiorari to overturn a decision by the Fifth Circuit en banc. That court rightly held that no one can own the law by claiming a copyright in it. The growing industry of writing regulations and profiting from them must yield to the right to republish and criticize legal requirements. Even parental access to school-mandated tests and books is at stake in this important case.
Read the text of Eagle Forum's brief:
Filed Oct. 18, 2002 - Adobe Acrobat (PDF) Format

Eagle Forum files amicus brief in Napster case.

Eagle Forum believes that the same arguments used to shut down Napster could be used to shut down, or set up gatekeepers to monitor, other directory services, search engines or websites. This would prohibit peer-to-peer communication on the internet about many things, especially health treatment and medicines. Congress has not regulated the internet and activist judges certainly should not do so.

Read text of Eagle Forum's brief:
Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format

Oral Argument was held on October 2, 2000 before the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.