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transfers for the 20 years granted under the bill. For these authors, the extended copyright granted in the bill will irrevocably vest in a transferee, even though the transferee did not bargain for the extra term. In fact, all the transferee ever bargained for was a copyright term of 56 years.
Here's why this will occvir. There is no special termination of transfer right for the new 20 years granted old act works in H.R. 989. Instead, the bill will apply the existing termination right in Section 304, or will it? Because the time limits for termination have not been emended, for works first published between 1920 and 1933 (coincidentally important years for the Amsong group) , the five-year window for termination has already passed. These authors or their children can't terminate even if they want to. And with each successive year, authors or their children will lose the ability to terminate for another year's works: in 1996, authors and their children will no longer be able to terminate for works first published in 1934.
This manifest unfairness can be prevented by vesting the extra 20 years solely and directly in the author or his or her heirs. Purchasers of copyright can then renegotiate contracts and pay for the real value of the extra 20 years, rather than reaping the wholly undeserved windfall of a contract negotiated 75 years ago. This can be done either by amending the bill to simply vest the extra 20 years in the author, or, by going to a term of life plus 70 for these old act works (as well as for new act works of course) . What follows is my life plus 70 proposal.
Proposal for a Term of Life Plus 70 for All Works
There are a number of ways to eunend the bill to protect authors. One way would be to convert to a term of life of the author plus 70 years (if the decision is made to extend the term) for old Act works, while still preserving the ability of the publisher to exploit the work according to the telrm of the original contract. This should also include the 1976 Act's extra 19 year term for works for which the author had to terminate the transfer between 1978 and 1995, thereby not disadvantaging transferees. (The author would still have the right to terminate where currently available) . This would, importantly, accomplish other objectives: it would prevent authors from outliving their copyrights, it would give the new 20 years to authors, it would harmonize U.S. law with EU law, and it would help our trade negotiators get a term of at least life plus 50 in foreign countries' GATT retroactivity provisions.
Here's how the proposal would work in practice. Assume in 1920, an author transferred his rights in both the original and renewal terms to a publisher. The publisher published the author's