[dvd-discuss] Copyright term only increased twice

[John Schulien <jms(at)uic.edu>]

Bryan Taylor wrote:

> This argument proves what it intends to refute:
> Congress has made it clear that it will not allow
> any more works to enter the public domain.

It's even worse than that.  The government has already
admitted that that's their agenda.  Quoting from the
government response brief for the Court of Appeals at:

http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/works/lessig/eldred/us_resp/us.doc02.html

12   a. The CTEA is consistent with the national tradition. The CTEA
13   follows the pattern of every major revision to the law governing
copyright, enacted
14  by different Congresses, including the First Congress. And it
follows the trend of all
15  of these prior changes, in which the term of protection has steadily
increased by
16  relatively modest and equal amounts. The terms of extension have
been from 28
17  years, to 42 years, to 56 years, to approximately 75 years,to,
currently,
18  approximately 95 years. A continuous, undisputed tradition that
reaches into four
19  different centuries is nearly conclusive.

I don't know how it could be any clearer.  The government has
already explicitly argued that there is a "national tradition" of
regular, systematic copyright extension.

The job of the Supreme Court is to rule on the legitimacy of that
"national tradition."  If it rules in favor of Congress, then the public

domain is truly dead -- this ruling will be a green light for regular,
systematic 20 year extensions to all copyrights every 20 years.