Justice Stevens' dissent in Eldred

Thanks for your message.

Even with the extensions which Congress began passing in the 1960's, I still don't understand Justice Stevens reference to nothing having passed into the public domain -- with the one exception -- for the past EIGHTY years.

And second, I think he has the dates wrong. As I noted, works first published in 1921 and 1922 are in the public domain, while works first published in 1923 -- the year he referenced -- would still be subject to copyright protection.

Joe Bauer

At 09:05 AM 1/28/2003 -0500, you wrote:
>Professor,
>
>I don't have the statutes at hand, and doubtless this will be answered on
>the list in greater detail, but it was my understanding that the
>extensions of copyright that Congress began passing in the sixties were
>done expressly for the purpose of extending the term of all existing
>copyrights while they worked out the copyright act itself. I think that
>any works requiring a renewal under the old act may have entered the
>public domain if not renewed, but I've spoken to some of the attorneys who
>assisted Eldred and it was clear (to them, at least), that no work that
>was properly renewed had entered the public domain since the mid-sixties
>unless it was put there by the rights holder.
>
>Kevin W. Grierson
>
>Kevin W. Grierson
>Willcox & Savage, P.C.
>1800 Bank of America Center
>One Commercial Place
>Norfolk, Virginia 23510
Received on Tue Jan 28 2003 - 14:58:52 GMT