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)

210 advantage of the longer term of protection in EU member states if they are s\ibject to a shorter term in the United States. Because some works protected under U.S. law already receive a longer term of protection than in the EU system, the longer terms provided by this legislation will have no effect on the term of protection they receive in Europe. Other U.S. works, however, are currently provided a shorter term of protection than in Europe, so will receive a longer term if the U.S. term is extended. In the U.S., works whose term is measured from the life of the author - where the work is created outside an employment relationship and the author is known - are currently granted a term of protection of the life of the author plus fifty years. If the U.S. term is modified to life of the author plus seventy years, these authors or their assigns will enjoy a longer term of protection in the EU member states. As a result, paintings, books, sculptures, plays, architectural drawings and other such works would enjoy twenty more years of protection in EU member states if H.R. 989 is passed. On the other hand, works made for hire are protected under current U.S. law for a term of seventy-five years from their publication or 100 years from their creation, whichever expires first. Right holders in works subject to this rule, such as the producers of sound recordings and films, currently enjoy a term of protection twenty five years in excess of that pr'ovided by the EU system, which is fifty years from first publication or communication to the public. Because the maximum term of protection for producers of sound recordings and films in the EU system is fifty years, increasing the work for hire term in the U.S. to ninety five years will have no effect ^on the term they are granted in the EU system. As I will now explain, however, there is a means through which U.S. filni producers would benefit in Europe from term extension in the United States. If H.R. 989 or similar legislation is adopted, right holders in some U.S. works made for hire will be able to exploit these works in EU member states for up to twenty years longer than they can under the current system. The contracts under which these works are created typically permit the person for whom the work is created to exercise all economic rights granted to the actual creator of the work throughout the world. In the case of films, for example, directors are considered the authors under the EU system and are given a term of protection of life plus seventy years. These rights are in addition to, and more expansive than, those rights granted directly to the producer that I just mentioned. But pursuant to the contracts under which U.S. films are made, all rights granted to the directors of the films by EU member states are exploited by the producers of U.S. films. The term of protection granted directors of U.S. films in the EU system, however, is capped by the term granted the film in the United States. Currently, then, the life plus seventy year term they are granted in the EU system is capped by the seventy