Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act
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| Long title | To amend the provisions of title 17, United States Code, with respect to the duration of copyright, and for other purposes. |
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| Acronyms (colloquial) | CTEA |
| Enacted by | the 105th United States Congress |
| Effective | October 27, 1998 |
| Citations | |
| Public law | Pub.L. 105–298 |
| Statutes at Large | 112 Stat. 2827 |
| Codification | |
| Acts amended | Copyright Act of 1976 |
| Titles amended | 17 (Copyrights) |
| U.S.C. sections amended | 17 U.S.C. §§ 108, 203(a)(2), 301(c), 302, 303, 304(c)(2) |
| Legislative history | |
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| United States Supreme Court cases | |
| Eldred v. Ashcroft | |
The Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA) of 1998 extended copyright terms in the United States. It is one of several acts extending the terms of copyrights.
Following the Copyright Act of 1976, copyright would last for the life of the author plus 50 years, or 75 years for a work of corporate authorship. The 1976 Act also increased the extension term for works copyrighted before 1978 that had not already entered the public domain from twenty-eight years to forty-seven years, giving a total term of seventy-five years.
The 1998 Act extended these terms to life of the author plus 70 years and for works of corporate authorship to 120 years after creation or 95 years after publication, whichever endpoint is earlier. Copyright protection for works published before January 1, 1978, was increased by 20 years to a total of 95 years from their publication date.
This law, also known as the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, Sonny Bono Act, or (derisively) the Mickey Mouse Protection Act, effectively "froze" the advancement date of the public domain in the United States for works covered by the older fixed term copyright rules. Under this Act, additional works made in 1923 or afterwards that were still protected by copyright in 1998 will not enter the public domain until 2019 or afterward (depending on the date of the product) unless the owner of the copyright releases them into the public domain before then. Unlike copyright extension legislation in the European Union, the Sonny Bono Act did not revive copyrights that had already expired. The Act did extend the terms of protection set for works that were already copyrighted, and is retroactive in that sense. However, works created before January 1, 1978, but not published or registered for copyright until recently, are addressed in a special section (17 U.S.C. § 303) and may remain protected until the end of 2047. The Act became Pub.L. 105–298 on October 27, 1998.
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