Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
prosecutors were forced to drop charges against LaMacchia because he had made the
programs available for free. Since he had not profited from his actions, he had not vi-
olated copyright law. To close this legal loophole, Congress passed the No Electronic
Theft Act of 1997, which made it a criminal offense simply to reproduce or distribute
more than a thousand dollars' worth of copyrighted material in a six-month period.
COPYRIGHT CREEP
As a result of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998, works created and
published before January 1, 1978, are protected for 95 years. Works created on or after
January 1, 1978, are protected for the author's lifetime plus 70 years after the author's
death. If the work is a work made for hire, the length of protection is 95 years from the
date of publication or 120 years from the date of creation, whichever is less.
According to Siva Vaidhyanathan, “in the early republic and the first century of
American legal history, copyright was a Madisonian compromise, a necessary evil, a lim-
ited, artificial monopoly, not to be granted or expanded lightly” [28, p. 24]. Over time,
however, Congress has gradually increased both the term of copyright protection and
the kind of intellectual properties that are protected by copyright (Figure 4.5). One rea-
son has been the desire to have international copyright agreements. In order to complete
these agreements, Congress has had to reconcile American copyright law with European
law, which in general has had much stronger protections for the producers of intellectual
property [28]. Another reason for “copyright creep” has been the introduction of new
technologies, such as photography, audio recording, and video recording.
For example, since 1831 music publishers have been able to copyright sheet music
and collect royalties from musicians performing this music in public. In 1899 Melville
Clark introduced the Apollo player piano, which played songs recorded on rolls of heavy
Copyright creep
95
75
56
Automatic renewal
42
Computer software
Motion pictures
28
Sound recordings
Photographs
All literary works
Corporate authorship
Sheet music
Prints
Books
1790
1831
1909
1976
1998
FIGURE 4.5
Since the first Copyright Act was passed in 1790, both the length of copyright
protection and the kinds of intellectual property that can be copyrighted have grown
dramatically.
