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317
Overview
Mr. Chairman, your intention and that of your cosponsors is noble: to create parity between European authors and U.S. authors. I do not believe your intention was to create parity between European authors and those who merely purchased the copyright from U.S. authors, leaving U.S. authors empty handed. Unfortunately, as currently drafted, H.R. 989 does not create parity between U.S. authors and European authors. Instead, because of drafting that statutorily enforces decades old contracts, the bill awards the new 20 years of copyright to purchasers of copyright rather than to the author or his family. These purchasers of copyright neither bargained for nor paid for the new 20 years.
As I detail below, ^ the history of these old contracts can be traced back at least to 1919, when lawyers for music publishers began inserting boilerplate language in contracts with songwriters claiming that any future extensions of term granted by Congress would automatically vest in the publisher.^ H.R. 989 has the effect of statutorily enforcing this 1919 boilerplate language with
See page 16.
^ This practice was candidly noted during 1964 Copyright Office meetings on revising the 1909 Act by Philip B. Wattenberg:
Since 1919 my firm has represented music publishers, and during those years we've drawn numerous contracts under which the renewal contract was assigned to the publisher. Invariably, these contracts contained the following language: "If the copyright law of the United states now in force shall be changed or amended so as to provide for an extended or longer term of copyright, then the writer hereby sells, assigns, transfers, and sets over unto the publisher, its successors and assigns or designees, all his right, title, and interest in an to said musical compositions covered by this agreement, for such extended or longer term of copyright."
Copyright Law Revision Part 4 : Further Discussions and Comments on Preliminary Draft for Revised U.S. Copyright Law. 88th Cong. , 2d Sess. 39 (House Coram. Print 1964) .
That music publishers were able to force writers to sign such agreements does not mean that music publishers paid for the right and thus should have the benefit of a term of copyright not even in existence until decades later.