Copyright Information

Forwarded to the site from Judy Canat from the [email protected]

- Congress Passes Bill Detrimental to Genealogists

The U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate have been working for a while on a bill designed to extend the term of copyright protection by 20 years. H.R. 2589, the House version of copyright term extension and now named, "The Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act," was adopted by the full House or Representatives on March 25, 1998. The bill was sent to the Senate, where it languished for some time. In September the Senate passed a slightly different bill. The two bodies then worked out a compromise document. The House and the Senate passed S. 505 on October 7, 1998. President Clinton signed the bill on October 27, 1998.

Per our Constitution, our government, "to promote the science and useful arts" ... secures "for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries." This balances the right of a person to make a profit, with the right of the people to the work (so they can freely make derivative works).

Until 1979, the copyright term was 56 years: one 28 year term, extendible for an additional 28 years. Hence, in 1978 all works created in or before 1922 were in the public domain. In 1979, Congress RETROACTIVELY extended copyright terms 19 years, so that the material from 1923 has never entered the public domain. Now, 19 years later, at the urging of the Walt Disney Company, the Gershwin heirs, and many others concerned with their rights to keep exclusive ownership of intellectual property, Congress has RETROACTIVELY extended copyright terms another 20 years, to 95 years.

This means that materials written in 1923, which would have entered the public domain on Jan. 1, 1999, will now enter the public domain on Jan 1, 2019. Materials written in 1924 will now enter the public domain on Jan. 1, 2020. And that, sir, is only if Congress does not retroactively extend the term a third time.

What impact does this have on genealogists? We all want information. In this day and age, information usually is found online or on CD-ROM disks. Yet the people who produce those online databases and CD-ROM disks are now prohibited from reproducing materials printed after 1922.

Newspapers after 1922 (obituaries, especially) will now be in copyright for another 20 years. You'll need to wait 20 more years before they can be transcribed and put online for free. Old genealogies, which might be useful if reprinted, cannot be freely reprinted or placed online for an additional 20 years. Historical materials cannot be reprinted or placed online for an additional 20 years. Likewise, obscure works whose copyright status is uncertain or where the heirs cannot be tracked down, cannot be placed online for an additional 20 years.

For a much more detailed description of the impact, look at:

http://www.public.asu.edu/~dkarjala/

My thanks to Richard J. Yanco for his update on the issue. He was quite helpful in describing the legal language of the bill to me. If you would like to contact Richard, he is at: [email protected].

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