shouting loudly

Copyright uber-expert Patry: Term too long

In the first chunk of an interview with Copycense that will be published in several parts, copyright uber-expert William Patry argues, inter alia, that the copyright term is too long.

Here’s the relevant text:

From a policy standpoint, I think the duration of copyright is way too long. Whether “life plus 50 [years]” was correct or not I think can only be answered by taking into account what we got internationally. There was never an argument that “life plus 50” was required to give adequate incentive; “life plus 50” had been the standard in the Berne Convention for some period of time, and the idea of shifting to that in the [Copyright Act of 1976] was … because it benefited us overseas. If I had the ability to write the copyright laws myself, I would probably make the term life of the author and that’s it. I think the [current] term is way too long from a policy standpoint.

While I would urge the reader to consider arguments on their own merits, Patry’s qualifications to make such a claim may be without equal. He has served as copyright counsel to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee and policy advisor to the Register of Copyrights. (Not only are these institutions not breeding grounds for the rolling back of copyright protections, each has a history of actively promoting ever-stronger copyright protections.) Patry was formerly professor of law at Cardozo and an adjunct professor at Georgetown. His treaty on copyright, Patry on Copyright, is the largest ever produced. Patry is currently Google’s senior copyright counsel.

The bulk of the interview will also be published in the June issue of Searcher magazine. Thanks to Hurst Associates for the link.