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The copyright term is the length of time copyright subsists in a work before it passes into the public domain. In most of the world, this length of time is the life of the author plus either 50 or 70 years.


Length of copyright

Copyright subsists for a variety of lengths in different jurisdictions. The length of the term can depend on several factors, including the type of work (e.g.
musical composition Musical composition can refer to an original piece or work of music, either vocal or instrumental, the structure of a musical piece or to the process of creating or writing a new piece of music. People who create new compositions are called ...
or
novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itself ...
), whether the work has been published or not, and whether the work was created by an individual or a corporation. In most of the world, the default length of copyright is the life of the author plus either 50 or 70 years. In the United States, the term for most existing works is a fixed number of years after the date of creation or publication. In most countries (for example, the United States and the United Kingdom) copyright expires at the end of the calendar year in question. The length and requirements for copyright duration are subject to change by legislation, and since the early 20th century there have been a number of adjustments made in various countries, which can make determining the copyright duration in a given country difficult. For example, the United States used to require copyrights to be renewed after 28 years to stay in force, and formerly required a copyright notice upon first publication to gain coverage. In Italy and France, there were post-wartime extensions that could increase the term by approximately six years in Italy and up to about 14 in France. Many countries have extended the length of their copyright terms (sometimes retroactively). International treaties, like the
Berne Convention The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, usually known as the Berne Convention, was an international assembly held in 1886 in the Swiss city of Bern by ten European countries with the goal to agree on a set of leg ...
, establish minimum terms for copyrights, but these only apply to the signatory countries, and individual countries may grant longer terms than those set out in a treaty.


Implications


Copyright term and the public domain

The extension of copyright term imposes tangible restrictions on the
public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired ...
. For instance, scholar Neil Netanel argued that Copyright Term Extension Act 1998 prevented the entering of works central to cultural heritage of the US into the public domain. He argued, culturally important dissemination, recasting, or incorporation into new expression is prevented due "to the copyright holder's veto". As examples he gave the adaption of the plot from novels such as ''
The Great Gatsby ''The Great Gatsby'' is a 1925 novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in the Jazz Age on Long Island, near New York City, the novel depicts first-person narrator Nick Carraway's interactions with mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby ...
'' and ''
Peter Pan Peter Pan is a fictional character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie. A free-spirited and mischievous young boy who can fly and never grows up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood having adventures on the mythi ...
'', the refashion of characters like
Mickey Mouse Mickey Mouse is an animated cartoon Character (arts), character co-created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. The longtime mascot of The Walt Disney Company, Mickey is an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic mouse who typically wears red sho ...
, or the use of
Tin Pan Alley Tin Pan Alley was a collection of History of music publishing, music publishers and songwriters in New York City that dominated the American popular music, popular music of the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It origin ...
songs like " Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love)" for documentaries about the
Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
.


Copyright term and orphan works

For the millions of older copyrighted works of less enduring popularity, it is difficult, or impossible, to trace the copyright ownership and determine who holds the particular rights that would have to be licensed for the use of the work. The problem of such
orphan works An orphan work is a copyright-protected work for which rightsholders are positively indeterminate or uncontactable. Sometimes the names of the originators or rightsholders are known, yet it is impossible to contact them because additional details ...
stems from the extension of copyright term and the lack of requirement for the copyright owner to renew or register their copyright. In order to tackle this perceived problem some jurisdictions have revised their copyright laws to allow use of orphaned works, after diligent searches.


Reception and discussion

Discussions about the optimal length of the copyright term (e.g. regarding the copyright's incentive for creative production) is a significant part of public and scientific discourse and reception. One of the earlier and often cited positions is from the British politician
Thomas Babington Macaulay Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay, (; 25 October 1800 – 28 December 1859) was a British historian and Whig politician, who served as the Secretary at War between 1839 and 1841, and as the Paymaster-General between 1846 and 1 ...
who argued in an 1841 speech in the
House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...
that copyright is a
monopoly A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situati ...
and as such has generally negative effects on society. Although Macaulay's speech is widely reported, the reaction to it in the
House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...
is hard to find – Ricketson reports that following Macaulay's claims that the heirs of certain authors would block publication of their works: It is also worth noting that Macaulay is arguing here against term extension, he is not arguing against copyright. This point is well made by Macaulay himself: Liebowitz describes use of the term monopoly in relation to copyright as misleading, but "rhetorically effective"; while Towse writes that a more appropriate term is '
monopolistic competition Monopolistic competition is a type of imperfect competition such that there are many producers competing against each other, but selling products that are differentiated from one another (e.g. by branding or quality) and hence are not perfec ...
'. In 2009, a paper by
Rufus Pollock Rufus Pollock (born 1980) is a British economist, activist and social entrepreneur. He has been a leading figure in the global open knowledge and open data movements, starting with his founding in 2004 of the non-profit Open Knowledge Foundation w ...
of
University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
scientifically quantified the optimal copyright term length at 15 years, significantly shorter than any currently existing copyright term, via an economical model with empirically-estimable parameters. In 2013 scholar Petra Moser concluded in a paper on the impact of the copyright extension on the British Copyright Act of 1814 that "longer copyrights raise the costs of accessing intellectual assets for consumers and other firms, which may discourage the diffusion of knowledge and decelerate the pace of cumulative innovation and
learning-by-doing Learning by doing refers to a theory of education. This theory has been expounded by American philosopher John Dewey and Latinamerican pedagogue Paulo Freire. It's a hands-on approach to learning, meaning students must interact with their enviro ...
." In 2014 a ''
Rock, Paper, Shotgun ''Rock Paper Shotgun'' (also rendered ''Rock, Paper, Shotgun''; short ''RPS'') is a UK-based website for reporting on video games, primarily for PC. Originally launched on 13 July 2007 as an independent site, ''Rock Paper Shotgun'' was acquir ...
'' article about the existence of orphaned classic
video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedba ...
s and the suggestion of letting them enter the public domain after 20 years raised a controversial public debate about copyright terms and the public domain between game industry veterans John Walker,
George Broussard George Broussard is an American video game producer and designer, one of the creators of the ''Duke Nukem'' series (Todd Replogle, Allen Blum, and Scott Miller being the others). Broussard released his early games under the name Micro F/X. In 1 ...
, and Steve Gaynor. A paper published in March 2015 in the '' Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation'' analysed with a simulated model the relationship of scientific knowledge creation to copyright term length and concluded a decreased knowledge production on copyright term increases for the analysed context. As a curiosity, the work '' Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up'' is subject in the UK to a special clause in the
Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988c 48, also known as the CDPA, is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that received Royal Assent on 15 November 1988. It reformulates almost completely the statutory basis of copyright law ...
that granted
Great Ormond Street Hospital Great Ormond Street Hospital (informally GOSH or Great Ormond Street, formerly the Hospital for Sick Children) is a children's hospital located in the Bloomsbury area of the London Borough of Camden, and a part of Great Ormond Street Hospita ...
a right to royalty in perpetuity.
J. M. Barrie Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, (; 9 May 1860 19 June 1937) was a Scottish novelist and playwright, best remembered as the creator of Peter Pan. He was born and educated in Scotland and then moved to London, where he wrote several succ ...
had gifted the copyright to the work to the hospital in 1929. The different copyright terms in the various jurisdictions has led to some disputes involving derivative works created and/or sold elsewhere in the world.


Charts

Several charts have been made to help decipher the various copyright terms in the United States, such as: *Tom W. Bell's ''Trend of Maximum U.S. General Copyright Term'' (July 23, 2008) *Clorox (diskussion)'s ''Vectorization of Tom Bell's graph'', depicted above, which shows expansion of U.S. copyright law (November 27, 2008) *Peter B. Hirtle's ''Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States'' (2015) *Sunstein, Kann, Murphy & Timbers, LLP's ''Copyright Flowchart'' (2014)


See also

* History of copyright law *
List of countries' copyright length Copyright is the right to copy and publish a particular work. The terms "copy" and "publish" are quite broad. They include copying in electronic form, the making of translated versions, the creation of a television program based on the work, and ...
*
Perpetual copyright Perpetual copyright can refer to a copyright without a finite term, or to a copyright whose finite term is perpetually extended. Perpetual copyright in the former sense is highly uncommon, as the current laws of all countries with copyright st ...
* Rule of the shorter term * Copyright Term Extension Act


References

{{Authority control Intellectual property law Monopoly (economics) Public records