Quote:
Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward
I, as a member of the public, have an ownership right in any public domain item.... Therefore, in terms of public domain ownership, I have standing.
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You might have standing, but it's not because you "own" any part of PD works.
"Public domain" means that there is no longer
any protection on that particular bit of intellectual property. No one owns or controls it any more. "Anyone has free access to the public domain, but no one, after the copyright term has expired, acquires ownership rights in the once-protected works." (
Golan v Holder, p28)
I don't believe there is a statute of limitation applicable here either.
However, if you had an organization that distributes PD works, you can say "my organization is affected by putting works into PD." Thus potentially anyone whose use or distribution of PD could have brought the case, it just happened to be this particular group of conductors and educators. It's better for the case, since they can point to tangible negative effects of the URAA copyright reinstatements.