Opposing Copyright Extension

Commentary on Copyright Extension  

Mickey's Mine!

by Brigid McMenamin, August 23, 1999
Forbes Magazine, page 43  

Click here to return to the Opposing Copyright Extension Home Page.

Click here to see the article at the Forbes Magazine Web site.

Copyright © 1999 Forbes.  I have concluded that the importance of these views to the ongoing public policy debate and the noncommercial nature of this web site justify the reprinting of this article as a fair use under copyright law.  Please do not copy for any purpose other than a fair or otherwise noninfringing use without the permission of Forbes.

  Law

Who will suffer if a court strikes down the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998? Hint: not writers.

Mickey's mine!

By Brigid McMenamin

LAST FALL Congress voted to extend copyrights by 20 years. It doesn't mean much for today's creators or their heirs, who already held rights to their post-1978 works until 50 years after the creator's death. The real beneficiaries are the big media companies that own works whose 75-year copyrights were about to expire. For them, the new law means an extra 20 years of royalties (see table).

No wonder Walt Disney, whose most valuable characters were set to lapse into the public domain, devoted millions to lobbying and campaign contributions as Congress weighed the idea. So did Time Warner.

But the copyright extension runs smack up against the Constitution, which permits copyrights "to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts." Extending existing copyrights doesn't qualify, some Harvard law professors contended in a recent federal suit in Washington, D.C. How could a windfall to a public corporation inspire an artist working today?

That view may appeal to judges rediscovering the limits of federal power ("Drawing a line in the sand," Mar. 9, 1998). If the professors win, there will be nothing happy for Time Warner about "Happy Birthday's" 75th birthday in 1999.

 

 

Righting rights? These are some old classics that would lapse into the public domain without congressional copyright extension.			[The original article has some nice pictures here.]
	Year	Expiration old/new	Some beneficiaries
BOOKS    The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald    Tender Is the Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald    Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway	1925 1934 1929	2000/2020 2009/2029 2004/2024	Fitzgerald trust (3 grandchildren); Scribner (Viacom) Fitzgerald trust (3 grandchildren); Scribner (Viacom) Hemingway sons; Scribner (Viacom) family has licensed use of Hemingway's name and photo to sell rugs, fabrics, picture frames, decoys, desk accessories, throw pillows, etc., inspired by his travels
MUSICALS    Show Boat, Hammerstein, Kern & Ferber    Porgy and Bess, Gershwin brothers, et al.	1927 1935	2002/2022 2010/2030	Composer, author estates; Universal (Seagram) Gershwin estates; Warner/Chappel (Time Warner)
MUSIC    Rhapsody in Blue, George Gershwin    Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, Kern &            Harbach    Night and Day, Cole Porter    Blue Skies, Irvin Berlin    Easter Parade, Irving Berlin    Violin Concerto No. 2, Prokofiev    Happy Birthday, Mildred & Patty Hill	1923 1933 1932 1927 1933 1937 1924	1998/2018 2008/2028 2007/2027 2002/2022 2008/2028 2012/2032 1999/2019	Gershwin estates; Warner/Chappel (Time Warner) lifetime revenues of more than $50 million, plus a decade in United Airlines ads. Jerome Kern & Otto Harbach estates; Universal (Seagram) Cole Porter estate; Warner/Chappel (Time Warner) Berlin daughters; J.P. Morgan (executor) recently featured in cheery TV ads for Claritin allergy medicine Berlin daughters; J.P. Morgan (executor) Prokofiev's heirs; Boosey & Hawkes Association for Childhood Education; Warner/Chappel (Time Warner) Time Warner paid $25 million for catalog to get song in 1990
MOVIES    Gone With the Wind     The Wizard of Oz     Frankenstein     Dracula	1939   1939 1931 1931	2014/2034 2014/2034 2006/2026 2006/2026	Turner Entertainment (Time Warner) biggest theatrical film hit of all time, popular worldwide in virtually all cultures Turner Entertainment (Time Warner) Universal Pictures (Seagram) Universal Pictures (Seagram)
CARTOONS & CHARACTERS    Bugs Bunny, Warner Bros.     Porky Pig, Warner Bros.     Mickey Mouse, Walt Disney     Winnie the Pooh	1940 1935 1928 1926	2015/2035 2010/2030 2003/2023 2001/2021	Time Warner Time Warner Walt Disney Estates of Milne, Shephard; Dutton, Methuen and Egmont; Disney