Copyrights in the United States

What stood out to me most about Jason Hardin’s presentation on copyrights today was the Copyright Term Extension Act, also known as the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, Sonny Bono Act, or Mickey Mouse Protection Act. Basically, this act extended copyright term for personal works in the United States from the previous life term plus fifty years to life term plus seventy years. This act is not only interesting because it was advocated for by half of the duo of Sonny and Cher, but also because it is a blaring example of immense corporate power in the United States. While it is understandable that the Disney Corporation desired to keep their copyright so they could continue to profit immensely from their trademark characters, one has to wonder what is going to happen when their current extended copyright expires. Is Disney going to advocate for yet another extension on United States copyrights? This is likely—Disney is very well known for being a money-hungry corporation. What does this mean for other works produced in the United States? In our lifetime we may not have access to works of people who died before we were even born—this fact does not seem right. Should a corporation have this immense power over legislation? The fact that Disney got this legislation passed means they could do it again and that they could do it to advance themselves in another way other than copyrights. All of these questions are valid; however, we will not have concrete answers until the time is at hand. I, for one, do not believe that Disney will take their character’s entrance into the public domain gracefully.