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)

159 The Copyright Office supports H.R. 989 for two reasons. One, in the global information society, we have a need to harmonize copyright terms throughout the world, and we believe that life-plus-70 will become the international norm. Two, as a leading creator of copyrighted works, the United States should not wait until it's forced to increase the term. Rather, it should set the example for other countries. We support this bill largely on international grounds. However, we are not unmindful of some negative impacts that this bill would have in the United States. Enactment of this bill in one stroke freezes works from coming into the public domain for 20 years. This involves works copyrighted between 1920 and 1940. I am concerned about the effect that this will have on libraries, archives, and educational institutions who are striving to improve American education and who serve as the guardian of our Nation's cultural heritage. Libraries, like the Library of Congress through its National Digital Library efforts, are attempting to bring unique materials, including those still protected by copjoight, to the American educational community. The Library of Congress has been diligent in seeking copyright permissions for its digital library projects. However, much of the unique materials, photographs, prints, manuscripts, letters are very difficult to determine the copyright status and the copyright terms of such works. Finding the current copyright owner is almost impossible. The Library has spent thousands of hours searching copyright records and seeking permissions. Thus, considering the need to balance the rights of copyright owners with the benefits to be gained by the public, the Copyright Office opposes an additional term of 10 years to the unpublished works covered by section 303. The authors of these works died before 1953. Many libraries, archives, and historical societies, as well as authors and publishers, have been anxiously awaiting January 1, 2003, when these works are scheduled to enter the public domain. We also suggest a very narrow exemption for the additional 20year term to provide instructional materials to American schools by nonprofit libraries, archives, historical societies, and the like. In addition, there are other issues that were raised by four library associations in their letter of July 11 and by Dr. Billington, the Librarian of Congress, in his letter of July 12. The problems identified are preservation of materials and the ability to provide users with access of those materials. These problems are not caused by this bill. They are, however, exacerbated by it. This is because the older the work is, the harder it is to find the copyright owner and the more it costs to obtain permission to use the work. Libraries and archives play a critically important role in our country's social and cultural welfare, as well as its economic growth. The unique materials in their collections must be preserved and made available to our citizens. I would like to see these problems solved, and I hereby offer the services of the Copyright Office and the Library of Congress to address the issues of, one, the unbeatable copyright owner; two, preservation by libraries of these unique materials; three, access to col