House Passes Copyright Term Extension Legislation

I forward the following report.

Mark Lemley	Assistant Professor, University of Texas School of Law
Of Counsel, Fish & Richardson, P.C.	mlemley[_at_]mail.law.utexas.edu

Berkeley conference on UCC Article 2B, April 23-25 1998: http://sims.berkeley.edu/BCLT/events/ucc2b/

Information on UT's Intellectual Property program: http://www.utexas.edu/law/acadaff/intelprop/

My publications list: http://www.law.utexas.edu/lemley/pubs.htm

> House Passes Copyright Term Extension Legislation -- On March 25 the
> House passed by voice vote H.R.2589, a bill to extend the length of
> copyright protection by 20 years both for new and currently published
> and copyrighted works. The Society of American Archivists opposed this
> legislation last fall. On March 23 the five major library organizations
> wrote to all members of the House opposing the legislation, pointing out
> that the section which includes an exemption for libraries and archives
> for legitimate use would not, as it is currently worded, have the
> intended practical benefit. The House did not include in this bill a
> provision that would extend for 10 years beyond 2002 the copyright of
> material created but not published before 1978, a provision that had
> been opposed by historians that was in the bill introduced in the last
> Congress.
>
> There has been enormous pressure on the Congress by the powerful
> movie and recording industries to extend U.S. copyright by 20 years to
> conform to that of European countries. Many observers have felt that
> while there is little chance of defeating the bill, efforts need to be
> made to improve it. Indications are that the Senate does not intend to
> take up copyright extension legislation until after it has dealt with
> on-line provider liability legislation and legislation to implement the
> treaties passed in 1996 by the World Intellectual Property Organization.
Received on Fri Mar 27 1998 - 20:14:53 GMT