Righting Copyright

Only one thing is impossible for God: to find any sense in any copyright law on the planet .. . Whenever a copyright law is to be made or altered, then the idiots assemble. --Mark Twain

Perhaps in fear of Twain's acerbic observation, none of the usual Senators, Congressmen and other worthies gathered last week when President Ford quietly signed into law a broad, new and long-overdue revision of U.S. copyright legislation. So old was the last law (1909) that if it could have been copyrighted, the copyright would have been due to expire ten years ago. Despite the advent of such undreamed-of complications as TV and photocopiers, the battles over changes dragged on through 20 years. "The new law has seen righting and its body shows some scars," says John Hersey, president of the Authors' League. "But on the whole it is a good bill."

Well might he think so. Authors whose works used to be protected for a maximum of 56 years after publication will now retain their rights for life plus 50 years--the most common term internationally and the one Twain fought for in his lifetime. Though the law does not go into full effect until Jan. 1, 1978, it does immediately extend current copyrights to 75 years. As a result, royalties will be paid to widows and heirs for an extra 19 years for such about-to-expire copyrights as those on Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio, Eugene O'Neill's Emperor Jones and W.C. Handy's St. Louis Blues. Moreover, the new law will eventually close a troublesome loophole that endangered the U.S. copyright on any work that an American first published abroad.

Authors--and readers--will not be the only ones affected by Ford's signature last week. Items:

PHOTOCOPYING. Teachers and scholars will no longer be able to order wholesale copying of articles in specialized journals or other materials for study. Some limited photocopying of short works or excerpts will be permitted for a teacher putting together course materials. Libraries may also make single copies of single articles--so long as they do not allow intentional multiple copying or any effort to use copies as substitutes for the whole work or for subscribing to a journal.

TELEVISION. Cable TV companies, which now transmit commercial and public TV programs without paying for them, will have to pay a small fee likely to cost the whole industry about $10 million in the first year. Public TV will have to get permission to use a writer's work, and it will continue to pay a small fee for any work it does use--except plays, movies, operas and other dramatic works, which it must negotiate to get.

RECORDS. Composers--but not performers or record companies--will receive an increase in the compulsory royalty. On a record no more than five minutes long, for instance, the composer will get 2 3/4-c- instead of 2-c- for each distributed recording. Jukebox owners will also have to pay a new $8 annual licensing fee that will be divided among eligible composers.

All in all, says Barbara Ringer, the U.S. Register of Copyrights, the new law "is a balanced compromise that comes down on the authors' and creators' side in almost every instance." To clear up lingering or future royalty inequities, a five-member presidential commission will be created. Does all this resolution of old confusions refute Twain's cynicism? Well, perhaps not. James Fitzpatrick, a full-time copyright lawyer who represents the Recording Industry Association of America, among others, was recently asked whether his workload would now decline since the lobbying battle is over. He did not hesitate. "It's clear," he said ominously, "that I'll continue to be occupied."

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