“For Limited Times”: The Supreme Court Finds the Copyright Term Extension Act Constitutional in Eldred v. Ashcroft, but When Does It End?
Sue Ann Mota In 1993 a European Union directive extended the copyright term to the author’s life plus seventy years. The United States followed suit in 1998 with the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, which, like the E.U. directive, extended the copyright term for an individual’s works by twenty years, resulting in a term of the author’s life plus seventy years. It also extended the term for anonymous, pseudonymous, or works made for hire by twenty years, resulting in a term of ninety-five years from publication or 120 years from creation, whichever comes first. The CTEA also applied retroactively,...