Larry’s Log

Jane Black has a commentary on the upcoming Supreme Court hearing on the extension of copyrights in Business Week Online. The court decision is about whether or not Congress exceeded its authority in granting an extension to 70 years past the death of an author in CTEA The article does a good job of pointing out both sides of the argument but there is a definate slant in favor or not extending copyrights.

Basically, there are two questions to be answered in this debate, does extending copyrights promote the “progress of science and useful arts” as stated in Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution and do the courts have the jurisdiction to make this decision? That last half makes up the majority of the argument for the government, in my opinion and that gives me hope that they have little ground to stand on in their argument.

Don’t get me wrong, I have absolutely no problem with Disney maintaining their rights to “Steamboat Willy” but the problem is that “Steamboat Willy” wasn’t the only works affected by CTEA, it also prevented the works of Robert Frost from entering the public domain. That’s the real pity. Without these works being able to pass into the public domain I fear that they will eventually become lost and that’s the pity.

In the end, the battle is much larger than Mickey Mouse. “The real concern isn’t that Mickey or Happy Birthday [enter the public domain] but all the other stuff — classical music, little-known films — that gets incidentally restricted in order to protect a few valuable, perennial works,” says American University law professor Peter Jaszi. This case is about what’s fair game in the Digital Age. So far, what’s fair has been dictated by the entertainment Goliaths.

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