"Quarterly Updates Providing Practical Help For Corporate Legal Counsel."
Q: HOW LONG CAN A COPYRIGHT HOLDER PROTECT EXISTING AND FUTURE WORKS?
A: SEVENTY YEARS AFTER THE DEATH OF THE CREATOR OF THE WORK.
"FREE THE MOUSE" Effort Falls Short as Supreme Court Upholds Copyright Extension
DISCUSSION: In an opinion released recently, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to strike down a controversial act that retroactively extended existing copyright protection by 20 years. The decision signals the end of a legal challenge to the constitutionality of the 1998 Copyright Term Extension Act ("CTEA") that has extended baseline copyright protection of both future and existing works to 70 years after the death of the creator of the work. Prior to the CTEA, the baseline copyright protection lasted until 50 years after the death of the author.
The CTEA marked Congress' eleventh extension of the copyright term during the last 40 years. Some argued that the extension was the result of lobbying efforts from the entertainment industry, most notably Disney. Detractors of the CTEA claimed that Disney's true goal was to ensure that early Mickey Mouse works from the 1920s did not lose copyright protection and, thus, fall into the "public domain." Extension opponents launched a campaign dubbed "Free the Mouse" to promote the legal challenge to the
CTEA.
In their appeal, a group of plaintiffs led by an independent publisher of public domain books argued to the Supreme Court that the CTEA was unconstitutional on dual grounds:
(1) It violated the Copyright Clause of the Constitution that empowers Congress to grant copyright protection "for limited times;" and
(2) It violated the First Amendment. The Supreme Court rejected both
arguments.
Responding to the first argument, the Court found that a term of life-plus-70, even if applied retroactively, is still a "limited time." Second, the Court ruled that copyright law has "built-in" First Amendment safeguards, such as the "fair use" doctrine, which permits copying of protected works in certain circumstances.
I do not feel there is anything especially earth shattering about the opinion from a strictly legal perspective. However, I feel one has to give due credit to the 'Free the Mouse' campaign for thrusting the copyright extension debate into the public arena.
Richard Armstrong : richard@ArmstrongTheLawFirm.com
