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)

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395 fifty or seventy year duration as the case nay be.**** More generally, short-tem efforts to rig international intellectual property relations so that they favor a particular country or group of countries run the risk of disfavoring this Bame country or group of countries in a nedium or long-ten perspective. Copyright law is like a lottery that produces a vinner-take-all sweepstakes reward. Unlike other lotteries, however, the copyright petradign is constructed in such a way that the lucky strikes scored by some authors do not necessarily preclude similar strikes by others working in the S2une creative vein.'"* No one can predict the public's fancy more than a year or two in advance, if that. While consumers worldwide display unabated appetites for American films, music, and computer programs, there is no reason to doubt that European, and increasingly, Asian and Latin American producers will not periodically mount serious challenges in the future. One has only to recall the prominence of the English musical group known as "the Beatles" (and of English fashion designs as well) over a period of two decades to rein in the hubris of our present-day cultural exponents. To the extent that longer terms of protection are enacted into law, they augment the tribute that "" See supra text accompanying notes 14-17, 36-42. However, U.S. film "authors," as defined in the E.C. Directive, supra note 6, art. 2, might try to claim at least ninety-five years of protection in the European Community, in contrast with the life-plus-seventy term afforded E.C. film authors. ยป"* See, g.q,, Reichman, Collapse of the Patent-Copvriaht Pigh<?t<?ffy> supra note 4, at 492-96.