Opinion ID: 452161
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Is the Deposit Requirement Necessary and Proper?

Text: 8 All versions of the Copyright Act have been enacted pursuant to the power granted Congress by article I, section 8, clause 8 of the Constitution: The Congress shall have Power ... To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries. In carrying out the Copyright Clause, Congress can make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers. U.S. Const. art. I, Sec. 8, cl. 18. 9 Press argues that the library deposit requirement is not necessary and proper to carry out the Copyright Clause and is invalid. Press contends that the Copyright Clause gives Congress the power to advance the arts and sciences only by granting copyrights and patents. However, Press cites no authority for this proposition. 2 While no case has directly addressed whether the library deposit is necessary and proper to the Copyright Clause, there is abundant authority that the primary purpose of the clause is to promote the arts and sciences for the public good, not to grant an economic benefit to authors and inventors. E.g., Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc., 464 U.S. 417, 104 S.Ct. 774, 782, 78 L.Ed.2d 574 (1984); Zacchini v. Scripps-Howard Broadcasting Co., 433 U.S. 562, 576-77, 97 S.Ct. 2849, 2857-58, 53 L.Ed.2d 965 (1977); Schnapper v. Foley, 667 F.2d 102, 111 (D.C.Cir.1981) (quoting 1 M. Nimmer, Nimmer on Copyright Sec. 1.03[B] (1981), to the effect that the first phrase of the Copyright Clause expands rather than limits congressional authority in the area), cert. denied, 455 U.S. 948, 102 S.Ct. 1448, 71 L.Ed.2d 661 (1982); Berlin v. E.C. Publications, Inc., 329 F.2d 541, 543-44 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 379 U.S. 822, 85 S.Ct. 46, 13 L.Ed.2d 33 (1964). Moreover, long-established principles of constitutional construction make clear that the lack of express constitutional authority for the deposit requirement does not preclude its validity and that the necessary and proper clause should be liberally construed. See The Legal Tender Cases, 79 U.S. (12 Wall.) 457, 533-39, 20 L.Ed. 287 (1872) (in construing range of necessary and proper clause, look to purposes of enumerated powers, not solely to express words of powers); McCulloch v. Maryland, 17 U.S. (4 Wheat.) 316, 404-21, 4 L.Ed. 579 (1819) (mandating an expansive construction of the necessary and proper clause as essential to the functioning of a national government). Thus, a provision of the Copyright Act which sustains a national library for the public use is necessary and proper. We further note that the Supreme Court, albeit in passing, has recognized without questioning its constitutionality that the deposit requirement's purpose is to enforce contributions of desirable books to the Library of Congress. See Washingtonian Publishing Co. v. Pearson, 306 U.S. 30, 41, 59 S.Ct. 397, 402, 83 L.Ed. 470 (1939) (delay in copyright deposit and registration does not invalidate copyright); see also National Conference of Bar Examiners v. Multistate Legal Studies, Inc., 692 F.2d 478, 485-86 (7th Cir.1982) (copyright regulation allowing deposit of excised portion of testing materials valid), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 104 S.Ct. 69, 78 L.Ed.2d 83 (1983).