In the past few weeks, there have been three pieces of copyright news that are of interest to those in higher education.

The first is that on March 7 the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case of Golan v. Holder.   There are two issues in this case.  The first is whether Congress may restore copyrights once works have entered the public domain as it did with some foreign copyrights through the Uruguay  Rounds Agreement Act of 1994.  The other is whether the law that restored these copyrights violated the free speech rights of people such as performers, conductors, and film distributors who had used those works when they were in the public domain.    This case has implications for many cultural institutions, including libraries and others involved in digitization projects.

In addition,  Judge Chin rejected the Google Book Search settlement this week.  Locally, University Libraries’ Director Carol Diedrichs has a good roundup  of news and commentary on the subject, including a statement from the CIC, on her blog.

Finally, Cambridge v. Patton, the litigation between publishers and Georgia State over copyright infringement with regard to electronic reserves, is scheduled to go to trial on May 16.  This is after three years of discovery and preliminary motions.