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)

90 tee in the nonpartisan and yet forward-thinking way that is demanded of the times on the subject of intellectual property. When we got back from China, the first announcement that we received was that after long last, the movie industry would be able to open an office in Beijing. We think that we may have had something to do with that. We were looking in Asia, another huge area of our concern, for the enforcement of the intellectual property agreements that they have signed. You know, signing them are great days and great sound bytes, but who is going to enforce intellectual property rights in a country that has never heard of the subject in their judicial system before? And, thankfully, we have a provision in which we will help train and that they are agreeable to that sort of thing. And so, this, as you can tell, is a committee of — ^that I approach with great enthusiasm. The concurrent resolution on jazz has always been one of my great delights. The movie industry which — most Americans consider themselves to be movie authorities, not just movie buffs and I am no exception to that. And to tour lots and see African-Americans working on stages as construction hands — I remember when that used to be fought bitterly, year after year, how to get some black carpenters in the lots in Hollywood. And you can walk in anywhere now and look around and they weren't put there for me. It wasn't my benefit. I wasn't even supposed to have been on one lot that we walked into last night. To see African-American vice presidents of motion picture corporations is a brandnew development and it continues the thread that two guys brought, one with President Johnson and one with Martin Luther King, over 30 years ago. Thank you, Mr. Chairman for allowing me so much time. Mr. MOORHEAD. Thank you, John. One other member that has come in, he went to the wrong courthouse, which is understandable because there are several here in Pasadena. But he is probably our most famous member, Sonny Bono from Palm Springs, CA, the freshman Member in Congress, someone who has had a fantastic career prior to coming here. Sonny. Mr. Bono. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will keep my opening statement brief. Being a songwriter and coming from that industry, there were always inequities that were hard for me to understand, first initially as a songwriter. I didn't know why the Government got involved in a song at all or in a movie at all. As far as I was concerned, I wrote the song, or somebody else did, and it was mine. But then I found out that I could only have it for 25 years, I think, or 26 years. This was in 1952 when I started and wrote, "You Bug Me Baby." And if you missed that moment, the song went away, and it wasn't yours anymore and it became public domain. And it was so strange. It is a very interesting business because a lot of the creators now are kids, and they grab a guitar and they write a song, and it is just a sound to them. It is theirs. And that song becomes a piece of art later on. And the creator never suspects sometimes that that will become a piece of art for the rest of life. And so to