Quote:
Originally Posted by Nate the great
What this really means is that copyright law now means 2 different things in the US. There are works that is out of copyright in Kansas, Colorado, most of Oklahoma, Utah, New Mexico, Wyoming but are still in copyright everywhere else.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel
mmm... that's a joke right ??  |
Nope. The Federal system in the U.S. is set up with N Federal Circuit Courts (N==7, I think). Rulings in each circuit* are binding precedent in that circuit unless over-ruled by the Supreme court (which oversees all courts in the US). Rulings in Circuit A often cite rulings from Circuit B as precedent, but they are not bound to do so. In fact, we often wind up with conflicting rulings from two or more circuits -- when this situation arises, it almost always leads to the Supreme court stepping in to hear a case and so resolve the disagreement.
A ruling of this form from one of the N circuits, increases the likelihood that other circuits will take the same stance. But no guarantees. Do
you want to be the test case in some other circuit? Didn't think so.
Xenophon
P.S. IIRC the circuit courts are so named because the judges used to literally "ride the circuit" hearing cases, back in the days when it might take months to get from one part of their region to another. The split was done to ensure that precedent spread adequately rapidly, and also to provide diversity of legal opinion as a starting point for the Supremes when they consider cases.
*Each circuit includes both the front-line Federal courts, and also an Appeals court that sits at the top of that circuit's hierarchy. Obviously that Appeals court can over-rule regular courts within its own circuit.