For most of history, a great character or story or song has passed from its original creator into the public domain. Shakespeare and Charles Dickens and Beethoven are long dead, but Macbeth and Oliver Twist and the Fifth Symphony are part of our shared cultural heritage, free to be used or re-invented by anyone on the planet who is so inclined. But 15 years ago this Sunday, President Clinton signed the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, which retroactively extended copyright protection. As a result, the great creative output of the 20th century, from Superman to « Gone With the Wind » to Gershwin’s « Rhapsody in Blue, » were locked down for an extra 20 years. […]
The Constitution requires that copyrights be granted for a limited time; Lessig argued that if Congress has the power to retroactively extend copyright terms, it effectively has the power to grant unlimited copyright terms on the installment plans. Ironically, the legal battle against the CTEA drew much broader public support than the legislative battle had. « Once Larry Lessig brought the constitutional challenge, all these same people came out of the woodwork, » Karjala says of people who hadn’t engaged on the issue when the legislation was before Congress. « They started writing amicus briefs to argue the Supreme Court should rule it unconstitutional. » […]
One advantage opponents will have this time around is better arguments and evidence. Public debate over the last extension has stimulated increased academic research into the economics of the public domain, and as a result, we know a lot more about the costs of longer copyright terms than we did 20 years ago. […]
« There’s no evidence suggesting that a longer term is going to produce any more art, literature, » Sprigman says. « The only reason to extend the term is to give private benefits to companies like Disney or Time Warner that have valuable properties like Mickey Mouse or famous films. »
But copyright, he says, is « not supposed to be about corporate welfare for Disney. » Over the next five years, we’ll find out if Congress agrees. […]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/10/25/15-years-ago-congress-kept-mickey-mouse-out-of-the-public-domain-will-they-do-it-again