Today the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case of Eldred vs. Ashcroft, a challenge of the Constitutionality of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act. This act extended the term of all current copyrights by an additional 20 years. The net result of this is that no currently copyrighted works will enter the public domain for another 20 years. There is many things wrong with this state of affairs, not the least of which is the inability for individuals to make copies or derivative works even when the copyright holders have no plans or incentive to do so. Many books and films of historic or cultural importance are decaying on shelves and in film cans because they have no substantial economic value. Organizations such as Project Gutenberg can make these economically unfeasible sources available for the benefit of the public.

You could do much worse than to read Lawrence Lessig’s webpage which will contain links to many sources of information on the case.