Public domain & Sonny Bono

Dear CNI Forum Members:

With the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act signed into law, I am now unclear about what year copyrighted works enter the public domain.

The Sonny Bono Act did not amend the following section of the Copyright Act's Duration of Copyright part:

Sec. 304. Duration of copyright: Subsisting copyrights
(http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/title17/3-304.html)

     (b) Copyrights in Their Renewal Term or Registered for Renewal
     Before January 1, 1978
     The duration of any copyright, the renewal term of which is
     subsisting at any time between December 31, 1976, and December
     31, 1977,  inclusive, or for which renewal registration is
     made between December 31, 1976, and December 31, 1977,
     inclusive, is extended to endure for a term of seventy-five
     years from the date copyright was originally secured.

Therefore, if a work was published in 1923, 75 years later it would be in the public domain, going by sec. 304(b). For example, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's revised When Works Pass into the Public Domain (http://www.unc.edu/~unclng/public-d.htm) uses 1923 as a cutoff point.

Just recently, however, the Copyright Office released a brief pamphlet, New Terms for Copyright Protection (http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/), which offers a more simplified view of the Sonny Bono Act:

     For pre-1978 works still in their original or renewal term of
     copyright, the total term is extended to 95 years from the
     date that copyright was originally secured.

I believe that sec. 304 (b) was overlooked by the authors of the Sonny Bono Act in their quest to extend copyright protection an extra 20 years. The 1923 date increasingly looks like a controversial loophole.

Do any forum members have an answer to the question "in what year are copyrighted works assured to be in the public domain?" Any other advice on finding a public domain safe harbor would also be appreciated.

Steve Smith
Groton Public Schools Copyright Committee
(http://groton.k12.ct.us/mts/cimhp01.htm)
Groton, CT
<sb_smith[_at_]sprynet.com> Received on Sun Jan 24 1999 - 07:49:37 GMT