Censorship, Copyright, and Free Speech: Some Tentative Skepticism About the Campaign to Impose First Amendment Restrictions on Copyright Law

A burgeoning tide of scholarship urges courts to subject copyright law to heightened scrutiny under the Free Speech Clause. Articles of this genre commonly begin by trying to shock the reader into recognizing the repressive character of copyright law. For example: ‘‘In some parts of the world, you can go to jail for reciting a poem in public without permission from state-licensed authorities. Where is this true? One place is the United States of America [if the poem in question is protected by copyright].’’1 Another example: ‘‘Copyright gives the government authority to seize books and enjoin their sale, award damages against booksellers, or even send them to jail. . . . If the justification were anything other than copyright, these sweeping powers would be seen as a gaping hole at the heart of free speech rights.’’2 The authors then go on to make a variety of recommendations, some more radical than others, but all variations upon the same message: copyright law has been unjustifiably exempted from First Amendment