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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653 (4) of the Berne Convention requires that Berne signatories protect works under Berne standards so long as such works have not fallen into the public domain in their country of origin Moreover, the pre1978 formalities, which are prohibited by Berne, resulted in lapse of copyrights which would have subsisted in the absence of such formalities. Even after the US became a signatory to Berne, it made it clear that works that had fallen into the public domain would not be revived.^' This failure to comply with Berne results in discrepancies between U.S. and EU tenns of protection. This potentially-wide discrepancy in terms is illustrated by Mondrian's early works. Mondrian died in 1944. His work, Molen was published in 1909.'*' In the U.S., protection for this work terminated on December 31,1 984 (75 years after publication). However, under Berne (and in most of the countries of Europe), his works, including Molen, were protected until January 1, 1994 (50 years after his death). Thus, the U.S. term represents a 10 year shortfall from the protection required under the Berne Convention, and at least a 10 year discrepancy from the term of protection granted in EU countries By failing to protect pre1 978 works for the Berne 50 years p m a minimum, the US is in breach of its treaty obligations^' The US term of protection for this work will be 30 years shorter than the European terms after implementation of the EC Term Directive, discussed later The US Copyright Office has recognized the detrimental effect of U.S. works receiving shorter protection in Europe." In September 1993 the Copyright Office held hearings to consider whether the U.S. should, in view of the EC Term Directive, extend U.S. copyright protection by 20 years The testimony reflecting the detrimental effects of the rule of the shorter term treatment of US. authors in the EU provided impetus for proposal of the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1995, discussed below.'' As discussed in the next section, new laws in the U.S. attempt to eliminate certain violations of the Berne Convention. New legislation in the EU, however, widens the '"Berne Convention Implcmeniniion Act. Sec 12. ^^ Yve-Alain Bois. PiET Mondria.\. A Retrospective. 1994 at p 589 It should be noted that for a work of an to be published, it must be reproduced in quantities sulTicicnt to satisfy the reasonable requirements of the public An exhibition of a work of an docs not satisfy the "publication' requirements Berne Convention, supra note 13 at An. 3(3). rather, the work must have been reproduced in, e.g., a catalogue, as was Mondrian's woilc in 1909. ^'"Nation", supra note 9. '^"Copyright Office Hearing held on possible extension of copv right term." 46 SNA Patent, Trademark AND Copyright Joi'RN.Aj. 466 (Sept 30. 1993) ^^CoNO Reg 2/16/95 at p 497 11