Directory of Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act Resources

Home > Society > Issues > Intellectual Property > Copyrights > Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act

Sites related to the USA's Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998, which extends the term of copyright restrictions by 20 years. Sometimes called the "Mickey Mouse Copyright Act" by critics, since the Disney Corporation lobbied hard for it. Opponents pointed out that Congress had extended the terms of copyrights eleven times in the preceding fifty years, with the effect that no works created since 1923, such as the earliest Mickey Mouse cartoons, had ever passed into the public domain.

Resources in This Category

• Eldred v. Ashcroft Oral Arguments

  http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/10/09/1640249
  News of arguments in the case against the retroactive 20-year copyright extension and forum discussion. [Slashdot]

• Eldred v. Ashcroft: A Primer

  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/technology/articles/eldredprimer_100902.htm
  Summary of issue and the arguments, and links to legal documents and other resources about the case over the constitutionality of the Copyright Term Extension Act. [Washington Post]

• FindLaw: Eldred et al. v. Ashcroft, Attorney General

  http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=000&invol=01-618
  Text of the decision, with links to other cases cited.

• Let the Stories Go

  http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/30/opinion/30LESS.html
  Editorial citing the lawsuit against "The Wind Done Gone" as an example of what's wrong with copyright term extension. By Lawrense Lessig. [New York Times] [Free registration required.]

• Mouse Trapped

  http://www.americanlawyer.com/PubArticleTAL.jsp?id=900005521152&slreturn=20130711091341
  Discusses shifts in the perceived purposes of copyright law from public benefits to author profits. By Mike Godwin. [The American Lawyer]

• New Rules for Using Public Domain Materials

  http://copylaw.com/new_articles/PublicDomain.html
  How to determine what is in the public domain in the US after the Copyright Term Extension Act. Discusses trademark and right of publicity issues that may burden otherwise "rights-free" materials.

• Openlaw: Eldred v. Reno

  http://eon.law.harvard.edu/openlaw/eldredvreno/
  Open law public forum for collaboration and discussion on the case challenging the Bono Act's 20 year extension of the copyright terms.

• Openlaw: Golan v. Ashcroft

  http://eon.law.harvard.edu/openlaw/golanvashcroft/
  Open law public forum for collaboration and discussion on the case challenging the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act and "restoration" of expired copyrights.

• The Mouse That Ate The Public Domain

  http://writ.news.findlaw.com/commentary/20020305_sprigman.html
  "Disney, The Copyright Term Extension Act, and Eldred v. Ashcroft." By Chris Sprigman. [FindLaw's Writ]

• The Mouse That Ate the Public Domain

  http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/03/07/0029229
  "Antitrust lawyer Chris Sprigman has written a thoughtful column in Findlaw's Writ on the issues behind the 1998 Copyright Term Extension Act and the legal challenge (Eldred v. Ashcroft) to that law." News and reader discussion. [Slashdot]

• Why the Public Domain Is Not Just a Mickey Mouse Issue

  http://www.ninch.org/copyright/2000/chicagozorich.html
  Comments prepared for the NINCH Copyright Town Meeting on the Public Domain at the Chicago Historical Society by Diane M. Zorich.

• Wikipedia: Copyright Term Extension Act

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Term_Extension_Act
  Free encyclopedia entry about the act.

 

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