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Full-Text Articles in Law
Extending Copyright And The Constitution: "Have I Stayed Too Long", Michael H. Davis
Extending Copyright And The Constitution: "Have I Stayed Too Long", Michael H. Davis
Law Faculty Articles and Essays
On October 27, 1998, President Clinton signed into law the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998, Pub. L. No. 105-298, 112 Stat. 2827 (hereinafter the “Bono Law”). The Bono Law extended the term of copyright protection by an additional twenty years, both prospectively and retrospectively. The former is probably constitutionally proper; the latter is almost certainly forbidden by the Constitution's copyright clause. But most criticism5 has not forcefully distinguished between retrospective as opposed to prospective extension and so far has failed to convince either Congress or the courts of any constitutional infirmity. This is because most critics agree-or …
The Screenwriter's Indestructible Right To Terminate Her Assignment Of Copyright: Once A Story Is 'Pitched' A Studio Can Never Obtain All Copyrights In The Story, Michael Henry Davis
The Screenwriter's Indestructible Right To Terminate Her Assignment Of Copyright: Once A Story Is 'Pitched' A Studio Can Never Obtain All Copyrights In The Story, Michael Henry Davis
Law Faculty Articles and Essays
It is probably not quite fraud, though it comes terribly close to it, when motion picture and television production companies convince their writers to part with the rights to their stories when they sign with the companies. Despite contracts that claim the writer has no rights to the resulting script (either because the author has assigned his rights “in perpetuity” or because he has agreed to produce a “workfor hire”), U.S. copyright law provides many authors, perhaps the vast majority of them, with a future right that cannot be lost and can always be regained, irrespective of any written contract …