The Mouse Has Won

January 19, 2003

Last week the Supreme Court said that the Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act was indeed constitutional. The issue at hand was whether on not the act, which extended copyright another 20 years, was considered an overacting reach of Congress or a restriction on free speech. If the act was put down, lots of old copyrights would have expired and a good bunch of material would have flowed into the public domain, including the Steamboat Willie version of Mickey Mouse.

Instead, the copyright holders won and got their extra twenty years, plus a Supreme Court precedent, which means in 20 years there will most likely be ANOTHER copyright extension act, and nothing will ever flow into the public domain again.

Posted in Eratta