The Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act

Paper Summary:

On October 9, 2002 the Supreme Court of the United States heard oral arguments in the case of Eldred vs. Ashcroft. The paper shows that the fundamental issue in this case is whether Congress, which has constitutional authority to issue copyrights and patents "for limited times" to "promote the progress of science and the useful arts", overstepped its constitutional authority by passing the Act. The previous Copyright Act, passed in 1978, protected copyright author's work for only 50 years after the person dies. The controversy behind the case at bar is that the Bono Act extends this copyright term by 20 years. The paper shows therefore that the Supreme Court must decide whether Congress overstepped its bounds in extending the copyright term of authors from 50 years from their death to 70 years from that time.

From the Paper:

"Second, the Act is unconstitutional because the extension of the copyright term in the Act contravenes the mandate in the Constitutional text to "promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts," because it instead serves to impede such progress by encouraging monopolies and strangle-holds on the market. (Indeed, many scholars and commentators even go so far as to call the Sonny Bono Act the "Mickey Mouse Amendment," in reference to Disney's need to keep its copyright monopoly on Mickey Mouse and his brethren.) Specifically, in merely advancing the interests of corporate conglomerates (such as Disney and other monopolistic publishers) seeking to hold onto their massively profitable copyrights indefinitely, Congress has contravened both the spirit and the terms of the Copyright Clause of the Constitution."

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