New Bill to Limit Copyright to 56 Years, Would be Retroactive

[LuisCarlos17f]

New Bill to Limit Copyright to 56 Years, Would be Retroactive

A U.S. senator wants to end Disney’s copyright protection and yours too.

petapixel.com

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New Bill to Limit Copyright to 56 Years, Would be Retroactive​

Senator Josh Hawley has introduced a bill that would cap copyright on intellectual property to a maximum of 56 years, with no extensions. If passed, the bill would also retroactively apply to existing copyrights.

If the bill passes it would impact hundreds if not thousands of intellectual works currently enjoying the protection nearly 100 years after the death of the original copyright holder.

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Can you imagine it? That would be for all the entertaiment industry. Tencent could produce donghua (Chinese animation) based in famous characters from comics, books or movies previous 1966 year. Manga publishers could create their own version of known "old" western IPs.

 

[deganawida]

It's about flipping time. Copyright law here in the states has had expiration extended well past the lifetime of the creator. It needs to be reigned in.

 

[TwoSix]

Absolutely a positive thing. It allows a creator to benefit from their creation for their lifetime, but little benefit for their estate.

You'd be surprised how many IPs can't be developed because the actual inheritance of the copyright is hazy or lost, but developers don't want to risk someone coming in with a lawsuit to claim it.

 

[payn]

Maybe a good thing for the wrong reasons. I'm not sure this is coming from a genuine place and likely will kill its chances.

 

[MGibster]

This could very well have an affect on treaties the United States has with various countries. The USA isn't the only country on Earth with generous copyright protections.

 

[trappedslider]

The moron who introduced it has no clue about copyright law and only did it to jump on Disney bashing bus.

 

[Ryujin]

Absolutely a positive thing. It allows a creator to benefit from their creation for their lifetime, but little benefit for their estate.

You'd be surprised how many IPs can't be developed because the actual inheritance of the copyright is hazy or lost, but developers don't want to risk someone coming in with a lawsuit to claim it.

For this reason I think that it should be a scale involving time after the death of the author/creator, rather than a set time period. Say Life+10 years, or simply the life of the author/creator, with no inheritable rights. If you create something at 20 and live until 90 should you then potentially die a pauper?

 

[niklinna]

About darn time! I'm just kind of amazed this is coming from a Republican....

 

[Jer]

It's a grandstanding stunt, unfortunately, in an effort to "punish" Disney for perceived wrongs. And because of that it's not going to be a serious thing. Limiting copyright to a flat 56 years period would violate the Berne Convention, which the US is a signatory to (the Berne Convention has a minimum of life+50 copyright for works with an author, or 50 years after publication/first showing for works like films or where the author is unknown).

If they were serious about fixing copyright they'd be talking about revoking the Sonny Bono Copyright Act of 1998, which extended the terms well beyond the minimums required by the Berne Convention. And IANAL but even then as far as I've been told they'd have to let the current copyright extensions put into place by that stupid act expire because of the Takings Clause of the Constitution, so Steamboat Willie will still be under copyright protection until 2024 regardless of anything anyone passes or doesn't pass before the deadline passes.

 

[TeutonicBerserker]

This seems like just a stunt to build credibility for Hawley without actually accomplishing anything. Any bill that actually gets signed into law would exempt all "intellectual property" owned by Disney and anyone else rich enough to buy politicians (i.e., not you).