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extend the copyright for 48 years, for a total of 76 years. ^^ Despite this somewhat more liberal approach,^' as under the 1909 Act, failure to renew would throw the work into the public domain.
For works that had already been published at the tine the new law went into effect, the copyrights would be extended for the same period of time.^° The Register also expressed the view that due to the above-mentioned Supreme Court decisions, Congress's intent in giving the renewal term to authors or their heirs had been thwarted.^' To cure this problem, the Register proposed that there be a 20-year limit on any assignment of copyright, or at least those assignments that did not provide for continuing royalties, so that authors or their heirs would be "in a position to bargain for remuneration on the basis of the [then present] economic value of their works. "^° This same concern animates my earlier remarks that the current version of H.R. 989 unintentionally deprives authors and their feunilies from bargaining for the current value of the work.
In meetings with industry groups and others interested in the revision, the Copyright Office heard considerable criticism of its proposals, ^^ with the Register later describing the termination
^^ Id. at 56. The 76 year period came about as a result of a study of 673 authors of English-language books who died between 1930 and 1955, a survey of 61 composers of "serious" music, and a survey of 191 authors of popular music who died between 1930 and 1950. This data showed that the average age at median between the first and last work was 48 years and the average age at death was 68 years, for a span of 2 0 years. Based on these figures, the Register assumed that a term of 7 0 years from first publication would approximate the life plus 50 term. But because life expectancies were rising, a slightly longer term of 76 years was proposed .
^' Under the 1909 Act, there was only one proper renewal claimant and the renewal application had to be filed within the final year of the first 28 year period of protection.
^° I do not discuss the separate issue of the treatment of unpublished works. I understand that the Copyright Office is addressing this issue in its statement.
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Register's 1961 Report at 53-54, Id. at 93.
See Copyright Law Revision Part 2: Discussions and Comments on the Report of the Register of Copyrights on the General Revision of the U.S. Copyright Law. 88th Cong., 1st Sess. (House Comm. Print 1963) .