Ernest Miller and Raul Ruiz from Yale’s Lawmeme Blog were there all night with us in front of the Supreme Court last Tuesday night.
(Good thing I had extra blankets!)
They have posted recently regarding the event:

Lawmeme: Live From Eldred v. Ashcroft – I

Justice Breyer was particularly hard on the government’s position. He brought in a number of economic arguments. Basically, he made the point that the expected value of the extended copyright was so small as to be virtually zero. He also asked whether the government could recopyright Ben Johnson. The government did not say “no.” Justice Stevens appeared skeptical of the government’s arguments. The government made much of the inequities of not providing retroactive and prospective extension together. Scalia questioned whether the inequities argument could be turned around. J. Breyer, in essence, answered “yes” by claiming that existing copyright owners get all the benefit and, inequitably, prospective copyright owners get very little benefit.
Although four justices were not satisfied with the government’s arguments on retrospective copyright extensions, it is far from clear or even likely that Eldred will get the 5 votes necessary to overturn the statute. However, hope springs eternal.

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I’m trying to get all of the Eldred Camping Stories in one place, so if you were there that night (and especially if I videotaped you!) please oh please email me with a link to it. Thanks!

Seth Schoen has written up his account of our little adventure.

Lisa Rein and a big group of us had planned to meet at the Supreme Court and camp out on the steps of the Court overnight in order to be certain of hearing the Eldred argument. (Amy Harmon recently called Lessig a “rock star” — I guess it’s really true.) We had a list of cell phone numbers and a specific plan and schedule to try to make sure that our group of about ten very dedicated people would definitely manage to hear the oral argument in the morning. We’d already heard that lines would form early and grow quickly.
Lisa, who really seems good at organizing things, had managed to go to an Army surplus store earlier in the day and buy a huge number of cheap, warm blankets, as well as making some tea. By the time Aaron Swartz and I got to the Court, shortly before midnight, Lisa had already been there for hours.
Indeed, by the time we got there, the group had already ordered pizza, and was having a late-night dinner. (The Supreme Court Police Department night shift told them where to call to get pizza delivered until 1:00a — I guess it ought to come as no surprise that the SCPD would know that sort of thing.) It was strange to see a little camp with blankets, sleeping bags, clothing, backpacks, and pizza assembled with the Court (or the Capitol, if you looked from the other direction) as a backdrop. I briefly hung my suit from a tree.

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