| Click here to visit the Legal Information Institute's
electronic version of the United
States Copyright Act of 1976. As of February 21, 1999,
however, this site had not yet updated chapter 3 of the Act, which provides
for the copyright term (now life + 70 years for individual authors and
95 years for "entity authors," that is, works made for hire.
Click here to visit the Legal Information Institute's
electronic version of the Berne
Convention.
Click here for Sections
302-305 of the U.S. Copyright Act (covering the duration of copyright)
prior to the adoption of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act.
Click here for Sections
302-305 of the U.S. Copyright Act (covering the duration of copyright)
in effect after the adoption of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension
Act.
Click here for the European
Union's Directive 93/98/EEC, "harmonizing" the term of protection at
that of the longest of any of its members (life plus 70 years) and mandating
adoption of the "rule of the shorter term" by each member state.
Click here to see Article
7 of the Berne Convention, which permits but
does not require the discriminatory (non-national
treatment) "rule of the shorter term." It is the European Union's mandatory
adoption of this "rule of the shorter term," rather than the failure of
the U.S. to extend the U.S. copyright term, that is the source of any "discrimination"
against U.S. copyright owners. |