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are copyrightable. Although the preponderance of classicals work that is out there for "Circle C" is in public domain.
Ms. Bergman. If I may, I think that you stack the deck a little bit when you go to Beethoven. I think the earlier example that Mr. Murphy gave of the Samuel Barber piece is a better example of a work that was created some 25 or 28 years before it found an audience.
Now, that is very common in the world of serious music. I don't like to use the term "serious music." It makes our music sound frivolous, but I mean classical music. But it also happens in popular music where one never knows when a piece of music is revived, a song that either had a life at one time and expired and then is revived by a contemporary artist and becomes a hit.
I submit
Mr. Berman. But the problem for that is the unfairness to the original creator and his heirs.
Ms. Bergman. That is the point.
Mr. Berman. It is not that that won't happen. No works will disappear necessarily.
Ms. Bergman. But your question went to the promotion. Who then is going to print sheet music? Who then is going to work on the song from the creator's point of view? If you are depending upon the creator himself or herself, it might not be economically feasible. It may be the one song in somebody's catalog that earns them some money long after the copyright is gone. You never know where and when an older work suddenly gets a second life.
And I think this goes to the heart of the whole concept of intellectual property as property. And I certainly agree with Congressman Bono that at the heart of that argument, property is the operative word here and it is no less real because it comes from the factory of someone's mind as this cup that somebody made, which is not biodegradable, may I add.
But I don't think that a piece of intellectual property should be biodegradable either. And I think why we are here today is precisely what you were talking about to enhance the right of the creator and extend the length of the protection of the work.
Mr. Berman. And put the Government on the side of enforcing those rights.
Ms. Bergman. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly.
Mr. Berman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Moorhead. Thank you, Mr. Berman. Our next questioner would be Xavier Becerra.
Mr. Becerra. Remember to say the H, Mr. Chairman. Xavier.
Let me ask a question to anyone on the panel who wishes to try to answer this. Back in 1976, when we did alter the copyright laws to extend them for the 20 years, there was some debate about who would receive the right to that extended copyright.
Ultimately, the right was given to the owner of the copyright and not to the author, if the author had transferred that right to the present owner, the publisher, for example.
What was conceded to the author was a 5-year period under which the author, if he or she submitted some type — or initiated a termination of that right, could then during that 5-year gap, get full rights to that copjn-ight.