Heathkit Company update

[Glen Zook]

Randy, with the passing of the Bono Ammendment several
years ago, and the upholding of this ammendment by the
Supreme Court about a year ago, the copyright length
in the United States is no longer for 75 years, but is
now for 95 years!  Sony Pictures and several of the
movie companies were instrumental in getting the
copyright length extended because of the market for
the older moving pictures.

This additional copyright length does not comply with
the Berne Convention and is not recognized outside of
the United States and posessions.  The Berne
Convention calls for a copyright length of 75 years.
However, for those of us who live in the United States
and posessions, the life of the copyright is now 95
years.

Also, there are additional provisions which allow the
copyright to extend for 70 years after the death of
the author.

The enitre copyright law text is available for free
(the "book" containing the law now costs $24 for a
"hard" copy) at

http://www.copyright.gov/title17/index.html

Most copyright holders were "fine" with the 75 year
protection period.  But, since there is a very good
market for the older movies, Sony Pictures wanted to
get the royalties from the older movies that they now
own due to "buy outs" in the motion picture industry.
Some of the other movie studios decided that this was
a good thing as well.  Thus, they petitioned Congress
and the new law was named in "honor" of Sonny Bono
after he was killed while skiing.

Glen, K9STH




--- Randy Kaeding <rkaeding at HEATHKIT.COM> wrote:

Copyrights prior to 1976 were for 25 years, renewable
for another 50 years (total 75 years). Copyrights
after 1976 are good for 75 years.

=====
Glen, K9STH

Web sites

http://home.comcast.net/~k9sth
http://home.comcast.net/~zcomco

__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Protect your identity with Yahoo! Mail AddressGuard
http://antispam.yahoo.com/whatsnewfree

-----------------------------------------------------------
This list is a public service of the City of Tempe, Arizona
-----------------------------------------------------------

Subscription control - http://www.tempe.gov/lists/control.asp?list=HEATH
To post - HEATH at LISTSERV.TEMPE.GOV
Archives - http://interactive.tempe.gov/archives/HEATH.html