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additional 20 years of protection will not be granted to works from countries that still adhere to a term of life plus 50. Accordingly, unless the United States extends its term of protection, U.S. works will lose 20 years of potential income that would otherwise be available from exploitation within the countries of the European Union.
The financial benefit for U.S. copyright owners is thus quite real. For those works that are still exploited more than 50 years after the author's death, or more than 75 years after publication, a stream of income will continue to flow. The volume of that stream will of course depend on the popularity of the work, and the extent to which it can compete in the market with works created in subsequent years. Those works most likely to have enduring commercial value at that point in their lives are probably classic motion pictures and musical works.
The opponents of the pending bills question the extent to which the benefit for copyright owners translates into a benefit for the public generally. They point out that the purpose of copyright in this country is not simply to reward authors for their creation, but to further the public interest by promoting the progress of knowledge and culture.'
There are several respects in which the public will benefit in turn from the benefit to copyright owners. Four primary benefits to the public can be identified, two domestic and two international: (1) the extended term will provide authors with a greater incentive to create new works; (2) copyright owners will have a greater incentive to disseminate their works in highquality form; (3) the United States' balance of trade with Europe will improve; and (4) standardization of the term of protection will facilitate international commerce in copyrighted works.
1 . Incentives to create
The most obvious public benefit from extension of term is a direct furtherance of the purpose of copyright law: to spur the creation of more works of authorship, thereby promoting the progress of science and the arts. Authors will have a greater incentive to invest time and money in producing new works, since the opportunity for return from those works will be greater. Similarly, more funds received from the exploitation of existing works will be available to spend on producing new works.
origin. Art. 7(8)
' See U.S. CONST., Art. I, ยง 8, cl . 8. Probably the most quoted citation for this well-established point is Twentieth Century Music Corp. v. Aiken. 422 U.S. 151, 156 (1975) .