Copyright term, film labeling, and film preservation legislation : hearings before the Subcommittee on Courts and Intellectual Property of the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, One Hundred Fourth Congress, first session, on H.R. 989, H.R. 1248, and H.R. 1734 ... June 1 and July 13, 1995 (1996)

142 "Miss Saigon" just because one was based on a story that was in the public domain. In fact, I think pragmatism tells us that the converse is true. The entertainment industry, which is the industry from which I come and can therefore speak on behalf of, is much more likely to exploit a work that is protected by copyright, given the extremely high costs of production, distribution, advertising, et cetera. One of the points that was made by Congressman Conyers in his introduction really struck home to me this morning. He talked about being in China and the role that the United States has played in trying to get other countries to protect intellectual property. How can we go to other countries and ask them to grant strong copyright protection if we are not going to do it right here at home? And having promised to be brief, I am going to conclude with just one statement. I think it behooves us to remember that creators and copyright owners will not be the only beneficiaries of copyright term extensions. All Americans will be winners in jobs, in trade, in the balance of payments flowing into the United States from intellectual property. Thank you. Mr. MOORHEAD. Thank you very much. [The prepared statement of Ms. Saffer follows:] Prepared Statement of Judith M. Saffer, Assistant General Counsel, Broadcast Music, Inc. Legislation has been introduced in both the House and the Senate whose purpose is to extend the term of copyright in the United States by providing for an additional twenty-year term of protection for copyrighted works. The primary provision would extend the term of copyright to life of the author plus 70 years. The proposed legislation is based on the belief that if works copjnighted in the United States are to be properly protected internationally, our term of copyright must coincide with the term of copyright being granted in the European Community ("EC") and many other countries. It isn't necessary to outline in detail the many reasons why the current term of copyright is inadequate. I respectfully refer the Committee to the excellent comments submitted by the Coalition of Creators and Copjrright Owners to the Copyright Office in 1993, and to the statements presented by the witnesses speaking for the Cop)rright Coalition at today's hearing. On behalf of the composers, songwriters and music publishers represented by BMI, I would like to stress that extending the term of copyright will help further the general purpose of the copyright law — to encourage creativity and protect the rights of authors. In the general revision of the Copyright Act of 1976, there was a recognition that copyrighted works should receive protection for the life of the author plus an additional 50 years. At that time. Congress recognized that the prevailing international standard of protection should be adopted by the United States, because it was believed that this extended protection would help foster creativity, which ultimately enures to the benefit of everyone, not just the author. In addition, there is no doubt that there are significant economic benefits to be obtained by extending the term of copjTight. We are all aware that demand for United States' copyrighted materials transcends political boundaries and that all kinds of American intellectual property such as music are exceedingly popular throughout the world. Foreign pa3Tnents for works of American authorship far exceed American payments for works of foreign authors. Many estimate that United States' copyrighted related industries account for more than 5% of the gross national product and return a trade surplus of billions of dollars. However, a significant amount of this revenue could be put in jeopardy because of the principal referred to as "the rule of the shorter term", which provides that if the duration of protection in a foreign state is shorter than a member state, that member state may limit the protection it gives to works of the foreign state's nationals, to the latter's shorter copyright term. Accordingly, countries could protect works of United States'