Submission + - Congress Considers Extending Copyright Protection for 140 years: Who Benefits? 1
EqualCitizens.US writes: Should some sound recordings enjoy up to 140 years of copyright protection? Under the CLASSICS Act, Congress is considering granting blanket copyright protection for all audio works created before 1972, which means some works will be copyrighted until 2067. There is no other jurisdiction that upholds this lengthy protection anywhere else! Importantly, the Act doesn’t require artists or the rights holder to register for the copyright. Rather, any and all pre-1972 sound recordings would be copyrighted, greatly limiting the public’s access to these works.
Various organizations and scholars have responded. Equal Citizens along with a coalition of internet freedom and democracy reform organizations, is sending this letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee to urge its members to reject this Act in its entirety, or at a minimum, at least require registration of pre-1972 works. Otherwise, if the Act passes as is, famous artists and wealthy corporations will benefit greatly while the public will get absolutely nothing in return. As noted by Professor Lawrence Lessig in Wired:
Various organizations and scholars have responded. Equal Citizens along with a coalition of internet freedom and democracy reform organizations, is sending this letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee to urge its members to reject this Act in its entirety, or at a minimum, at least require registration of pre-1972 works. Otherwise, if the Act passes as is, famous artists and wealthy corporations will benefit greatly while the public will get absolutely nothing in return. As noted by Professor Lawrence Lessig in Wired:
This act will limit access to past works and stifle creativity for new works. It would effectively remove many existing works, including some popular documentaries, podcasts, etc., from the public arena. The Coalition recommends adding a registration requirement to secure the extended copyright term, such that works that nobody claimed could be allowed to enter the public domain. As this TechCrunch report on the coalition letter explains:
