Can the government be sued for copyright infringement? Which government, the federal government, or a state government?
For the federal government, the answer is yes. The United States has expressly waived its immunity to suit for copyright infringement. However, the sole remedy for copyright infringement is an action against the government for reasonable compensation. In other words, you can’t get an injunction against the federal government to make it stop infringing; you can only get reasonable damages. 28 U.S.C. § 1498. For state governments, the short story is that states are essentially immune from suit for copyright infringement, under the Eleventh Amendment, although you wouldn’t know it by looking at the text of the Copyright law. Here’s the long story. First, under 28 U.S.C. § 1338(a), federal district courts have exclusive jurisdiction for copyright infringement suits. That is, if you want to bring a copyright infringement suit, you must bring it in federal court, not in state court. Second, under the text of the Eleventh Amendment, the federal courts’ jurisdiction does not extend to covering
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