122
gible form that is in existence would be given statutory copyright protection as long as the work is not in the public domain in this country. The vast majority of these works consist of private material that no one is interested in protecting or infringing, but section 303 would still have practical effects for a prodigious body of material already in existence.
Looked at another way, however, section 303 would have a genuinely restrictive effect. Its basic purpose is to substitute statutory for common law copyright for everything now protected at common law, and to substitute reasonable time limits for the perpetual protection now available. In general, the substituted time limits are those applicable to work created after the effective date of the law; for example, an unpublished work written in 1945 whose author dies in 1980 would be protected under the statute from the effective date through 2030 (50 years after the author’s death).
A special problem under this provision is what to do with works whose ordinary statutory terms will have expired or will be nearing expiration on the effective date. The committee believes that a provision taking away subsisting common law rights and substituting statutory rights for a reasonable period is fully in harmony with the constitutional requirements of due process, but it is necessary to fix a “reasonable period” for this purpose. Section 303 provides that under no circumstances would copyright protection expire before December 31, 2001, and also attempts to encourage publication by providing 25 years more protection (through 2026) if the work were published before the end of 2001.
SECTION 204. DURATION OF SUBSISTING COPYRIGHTS
It has been estimated that when the new law goes into effect there will be at least 6.6 million copyrights already subsisting: approximately 6 million still in their first term and 600,000 that have been renewed. The arguments in favor of lengthening the duration of copyright apply to subsisting as well as future copyrights, and that the bill’s basic approach of increasing the present 56-year term to 75 years in the case of copyrights subsisting in both their first and their renewal terms is the simplest and fairest solution of the problem.
Copyrights in their first term
Subsection (a) of section 304 reenacts and preserves the renewal provision, now in section 24 of the statute, for all of the works presently in their first 28-year term. A great many of the present expectancies in these cases are the subject of existing contracts, and it would be unfair and immensely confusing to cut off or alter these interests. Renewal registration will be required during the 28th year of the copyright but the length of the renewal term will be increased from 28 to 47 years.
Copyrights in, their renewal term
Renewed copyrights that are subsisting in their second term at any time during the period between December 31, 1975, and December 31, 1976, inclusive, would be extended under section 304(b) to run for a total of 75 years. This provision would add another 19 years to the duration of any renewed copyright whose second term started
