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)

100 Mr. KOENIGSBERG. Right. Which takes us to 1989. Mr. Becerra. And then you count a 5-year period. Mr. KOENIGSBERG. There was a 5-year period from 1989 to 1994 under which the author's heirs could have recaptured that copyright. And, presumably, if it was a work of commercial value and if they did not reach an agreement with their existing publisher — which in many cases occurred because they were happy to reach agreement; but, presumably, if they wanted to recapture it then, they did recapture it; and they have recaptured it. Mr. Becerra. Let's say someone didn't negotiate during that period or didn't try to terminate during that 5-year period in 1989 to 1994, for whatever reason, believing that there was no reason to try to extend the right for those extra 20 years. Mr. KOENIGSBERG. For the extra 19. Mr. Becerra. Now, it is 1995. This legislation passes, and now we have extended the right of the copyright another 20 years. The owner now has another additional 20 years. But the author, because current language says you must act between 56 years plus 5, no longer has the right to go to the owner of that copyright and say, you have got 20 extra years on something I wrote. That was not negotiated when we first transferred the copyright to you. So, in essence, that owner of the work is losing 20 years' worth of copyright. Mr. KOENIGSBERG. First of all, let's talk about what case we are talking about. We are talking about the narrow case where the work is older than 56 years today but younger than 75 years. That is all we are talking about. And I should tell you. Congressman, we very carefully looked at this question as well. Don't think we overlooked it. The thought was that, in this case, if the work had had any commercial value at all and if it was in the author's — actually, the author's heirs is what we are talking about — interest to recapture that copyright, they would have done so for 19 years as readily as they would have done so for 39 years. Mr. Becerra. But what if the author never knew about the extension that was granted in 1976? Say it was an obscure piece Mr. Bono. Will the gentleman yield? Mr. Becerra. Sure, if I can just finish this; and then, of course, I will yield. What if the author — it was an obscure piece, never got much notoriety, and all of a sudden Michael Jackson picks it up and, boom, it just takes off. What if the person thought why try to pick up $200 worth of royalties for the next year for 19 years? I will let it expire. All of a sudden Michael Jackson does something with it, and the 20 years' extension is granted through this legislation, and now there is megadollars being lost by the author because he or she may haven't understood the law well, been advised of it and now no longer has that opportunity. Mr. KOENIGSBERG. That is a danger that always exists. It doesn't merely apply to these works. And it is for that reason that authors— I think particularly in the music area songwriters have groups like the Songwriters Guild of America that makes it a point of telling their members you have got a work, and it is coming up. And publishers do this, too.