Internet Studies Class

History of Copyright Law and Texts (Leah Blaney)
Controversy surrounding the copyright issue began with texts as the arrival of the printing press gave way to wider public literacy rates and a demand for more printed works. While several guidelines to these exclusive rights were discussed and deliberated for years throughout Europe, England has been credited with the first official copyright law in its Statute of Anne from 1710. Of course, the characteristics of this law appear very primitive in modern light of the notion as it merely guaranteed that one specific machine could create copies of a literary piece without outlining anything concerning its implementation. (Lessig 87)
Since this landmark event, copyright law has evolved into a much more broadly scoped entity involving the right to copy, distribute, perform, create derivative works, or use any creative medium, especially in the United States. Building from England’s success, the U.S. wasted no time in passing its own legislation with the Copyright Act of 1790. This act solely pertained to U.S. citizens and only encompassed books, maps, and charts as authors secured rights for 14 years with the opportunity to renew this right for another 14 years if still alive at the end of the period.
Very soon afterwards, artistic endeavors were gaining ground internationally and some common copyright establishments were needed across borders. The answer to this quandary came with the Berne Convention of 1886, which automatically conceded copyright protection to any completed innovations without documentation for the length of the author’s life plus another 50 years. Numerous sovereign nations were united in their understanding of the rights to authorship and those inventing widely recognized designs could rest easy knowing their creation was guarded even outside of their homeland.
Over a century passed before any fresh legislation was enacted in U.S. law concerning authors’ rights. The Copyright Act of 1909 extended the term of protection to 28 years and allowed for one renewal comparable to previous administration. Although works were recognized internationally and defended upon completion, works in the U.S. not registered were still not recognized and entered directly into public domain. Works with affixed copyrights published before 1978 continued to exercise these particular guidelines until 1998.
Major developments in copyright legislation entered congressional discussions in 1955 with the United States’ involvement in the Universal Copyright Convention, formally announcing its adherence to the Berne Convention of 1886, and the introduction of new technologies. Since 1909, inventions such as television, movies, and radio began flooding into society and required further consideration from politicians on the topic of intellectual property. The Copyright Act of 1976 continues to stand as the foundation of modern copyright law as it identifies basic rights of copyright owners, the definition and implementation of “fair use”, and the change of copyright term from fixed periods to a lengthened phase of ownership centered around the time of the creator’s death. The law passed with little criticism from the public as it was mainly deemed to be a fair agreement between the rights of publishers and authors.
Two decades later politicians began discussing potential alterations in copyright law again with the concerns of those owning soon-to-be-expired works knocking on their door. The Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 greatly extended the amount of time works were to remain under copyright protection adding another 20 years to their lifespan. Now copyright holders from 1923 and afterwards will hold active patents for the life of the creator with an additional 70 years tacked on. This act immediately put the development of the United States’ public domain on hold until the year 2019 unless patent owners decided to release works before this date. In this same year the Digital Millennium Copyright Act was passed in order to criminalize the construction and spread of machines capable of dodging technologies and resolutions aimed at defending copyright, and also enhanced the punishments for copyright encroachment specifically on the Internet.
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Current Issues and Struggles with Copyright and Texts (Leah Blaney)
Many quandaries and protests have been directed at the contemporary state of copyright law involving the use of texts mainly via digital mediums. The basic framework of these issues can be summarized in one recent scenario concerning the hassles experienced by one man, Eric Eldred. In 1998, after creating a website intended to provide full copies of books for free online with available works in the public domain his web project was suddenly halted with the extension of copyright terms by congressional vote. Eldred would no longer be able to post new readings that were supposed to transfer into the public domain in 1998 until the year 2019!
Upon learning of this major setback in his newfound career, Eldred decided to contest the constitutionality of the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act. Before the U.S. Supreme Court, Eldred and his attorneys argued several key points in light of the limitations of current laws. Article I, section 8 of the Constitution states that “Congress has the power to promote the Progress of Science…by securing for limited Times to Authors…exclusive Rights to their…Writings…” (Lessig 215). Eldred claimed that the objectives of this clause were being obstructed by Congress’ ability to create retroactive extensions, practically assuring those few significant beneficiaries an unlimited amount of copyright security. The plaintiffs were able to prove that only two percent of those copyrighted works established from 1923 to 1942 were still commercially advantageous. Also, Eldred fought the case with the First Amendment asserting that there had been a disturbance between the balance of Freedom of Speech and the profit from copyright. Though the eventual victory was handed into the hands of corporate interests, Eldred was able to drastically raise awareness for those who directly and indirectly benefit from a consistent enlargement of the public domain. Numerous support groups and advocates have begun digging up new methods to employ when legally battling the realm of overextended copyright terms, giving hope for those readers, listeners, and viewers yearning to dodge corporate totalitarianism. (Lessig 213-247)

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