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)

305 50 year period of protection at the time the Copyright Act of 1976 was adopted, '^ that standard could then accurately be denominated international'* and was in any event necessary if we were ever to join Berne. Life + 70 years is not an international standard today, notwithstanding recent actions in the European Union, nor will it become one without United States support. It was not even the standard in Europe until the European Council of Ministers directed that its member states adopt a uniform term of protection equal to the longest of any of its members. If the cost/benefit analysis required by our copyright tradition does not justify changing the social policy balances we have drawn, we might better use our influence to encourage the rest of the world to remain with our standard, and Europe to return to it, rather than follow a decision in Europe that was made without consideration of the factors we have always deemed crucial to the analysis. Moreover, the proposed legislation is not really aimed at harmonizing United States and European law. It would, for example, extend the copyright period for corporate "authors" to 95 years <or 120 years if the work is unpublished). The European Union, by contrast, now offers corporate authors, for countries recognizing corporate "authorship," 70 years of protection, which is less than the 75 years we currently offer such authors. Consider also the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who died in 1930 and whose works have since 1981 been in the public domain in England (and Europe). Because works Hrst published before 1978 have a 75-year period of protection rather than the current life + 50 term, those works of Conan Doyle published in the 1920's remain under United States copyright. Thus, production in this country of public domain collections of his entire works is prohibited, although Europeans may do so freely. Because his last work was apparently published in 1927,''' it is scheduled to go into the United States public domain at the end of the year 2002. The extension would continue this "disharmony" until the year 2022. There are many other features of copyright law that are not "harmonized" even within Europe, let alone between Europe and the United States, including moral rights and the 15. E.g., 14 Omnibus Copyright Revision Legislative History, House Hearings 1975 (Part 1) 133-34, 14142 (testimony of Irwin Goldbloom, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Civil Division, Depanment of Justice). Some believe that special constitutional problems arise from an extension of the period of protection for works already under copyright, because it recaptures from the public domain works that should be freely available under the 'bargain' made at the time the work was created and offers no countervailing public benefit. They argue that the constitutional term "limited times' must be interpreted in terms of the constitutional goal to promote the progress of science and the useful arts. 16. E.g., id. at 108 (testimony of Barbara Ringer, Register of Copyrights); id. at 120 (testimony of Joel W. Biller, Secietaiy for Commercial Affairs and Business Activities, Department of State). 17. The Advemure of the Veiled Lodger was published on January 22, 1927, and The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place was published on March 5, 1927. Robert Bun de Waal, The Worid Biography of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson 13, 23 (1974). This same source lists other Conan Doyle stories as having been published in 1921, 1922, 1923, and three each in 1924 and 1926. Written Testimony of Intellectual Property Professors Page 14