WASHINGTON, Feb. 19 (UPI) -- The Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to decide if Congress exceeded its power when it brought U.S. copyright law into conformity the laws of the European Union in 1998.
At issue is the Copyright Term Extension Act, which extended the terms of existing U.S. copyrights by 20 years. Argument in the case should be heard sometime early next term.
The "copyright clause" of the Constitution gives Congress the "power to promote the progress of science and useful arts by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries."
Congress first used the power in 1790, when it enacted a number of copyright statutes. Specifically, the Copyright Act of 1790 established a copyright term of 14 years for newly created works and the existing works protected by laws in the states. Congress extended the protection in 1831 and 1909.
Most copyright claims today are protected by the Copyright Act of 1976, however, which gives an author the exclusive right to publish and reproduce an exclusive work during the author's life plus 50 years.
In 1998, Congress acted to make U.S. copyright law congruent with that of the EU. The Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, among other things, extends the terms of copyrights for 20 years.
"Thus, an additional term of 20 years is added to the duration of all existing copyrights," or for original works that at the time had not fallen into the public domain, the Justice Department told the Supreme Court in a brief.
A coalition of corporations, associations and individuals who use works in the public domain filed suit in Washington in January 1999, contending Congress was exceeding its "copyright clause" power.
The Constitution says copyrights can be established for "limited times," the group told the Supreme Court in a petition.
Because of the 1998 act, "works originally authored in 1923 that would have fallen into the public domain in 1998 could now remain under copyright until 2019 -- a term of 95 years," the groups petition said. For "an author who produced in the pattern of Irving Berlin (that) would mean a term of 140 years." Berlin, one of the most popular songwriters in U.S. history, died in 1989 at the age of 101.
When a federal judge and a federal appeals court ruled against them, the members of the coalition asked the Supreme Court for review.
A public group called the Internet Archive, a non-profit organization trying to build an Internet library, and a group of copyright law professors filed their own briefs asking the Supreme court to hear the case.
(No. 01-618, Eldred et al vs. Ashcroft)
