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I have two young sons, 8 and 6. They seem proud of the work I do. One even shows signs of being a bit of a storyteller himself — on occasion, quite a big storyteller.
If either of them should choose to launch his little boat on the same dangerous waters as dad, I would like him to expect that at the end of a lifetime of hard work in the arts he could anticipate a certain degree of respect for his accomplishments and that this respect would be reflected in the law.
But, at the moment, I am compelled to explain things as follows: I make stories for a living. If I made a chair or a shoulder bag or a pot, it would belong to me for as long as I lived or until I chose to sell it. It would be mine to give to my children, and this would become theirs to give to their children and so on.
Instead, I make stories; and they can only belong to my family until 50 years after my death. When my older son, who is very smart and curious, asks me why my stories can be taken away after 50 years I say it is the law.
When he asks why can laws allow things to be taken from people, I try to explain what laws are, how they come about and why we are lucky to live under a system that provides so many ways to alter and improve them, ways such as the hearing we are involved in today.
But his eyes glaze over at these explanations. He is too young to understand and the logic is too complicated and, finally, irrelevant to the essential issue which is property, be it intellectual or physical. As I said earlier, H.R. 989 is about something at the very heart of our system. It is about property.
Imagine for a moment how it would feel if your grandmother had left you an exquisite quilt of her own making and after a certain time government officials appeared at your door and said this quilt has been in your family long enough, now it belongs to the world. Yet that is exactly what happens to the things I make during my life.
H.R. 989 is about one thing: property. It is about how soon after people like me have made what we make can the Government, by law, allow it to be taken from us. At the moment, they must wait only 50 years. It is a small thing to ask that we be allowed to keep it in the family for another 20. It is a modest request. I urge you to grant it.
Thank you for this opportunity, and I hope your efforts will result in a change of law that I can hold up to my sons as an example of why our system and the extraordinary vigor of the arts it generates are the envy of the world.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Weller follows:]