01/10/2018

Why the Public Domain May Grow Again

It's highly unlikely we'll witness a provision changing copyright law in 2018

Two decades ago, a law named for one of the most famous musicians of the 1960s reframed the way copyright law worked.

That 1998 law, the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act[PDF], which was named in honor of the singer and congressman who died earlier that year, effectively halted a number of works from falling into the public domain, a key issue supported by Bono.

The act both extended the copyright of future works to 70 years after a creator’s death and increased the copyright term by two decades for works that were about to go into the public domain—works produced from 1923 on, most famously the early Mickey Mouse cartoon Steamboat Willie.

Please click here to read the complete article from Associations Now.