Reviving the rhetoric of the public interest: Choir directors, copy machines, and new arrangements of public domain music

Duke Law Journal

Volumn 46, Issue 2, 1996, Pages 241-

  Heald, Paul J ^a  

^a S Gregory Gt Episcopal Church C   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0041592392     PISSN: 00127086     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/1372957     Document Type: Article

References (4)

1. See Peter A. Jaszi, Goodbye to All That - A Reluctant (and Perhaps Premature) Adieu to a Constitutionally-Grounded Discourse of Public Interest in Copyright Law, Address at the American Association of Law Schools Annual Convention (Jan. 7, 1996), in 29 VAND. J. TRANSNAT'L L. 595 (1996). Professor Jaszi specifically mentioned as a threat recent legislation restoring copyright protection to certain foreign works, thus removing them from the public domain. See id. at 606-07 (discussing 17 U.S.C. § 104A(g) (1994)).
2. See Peter A. Jaszi, Goodbye to All That - A Reluctant (and Perhaps Premature) Adieu to a Constitutionally-Grounded Discourse of Public Interest in Copyright Law, Address at the American Association of Law Schools Annual Convention (Jan. 7, 1996), in 29 VAND. J. TRANSNAT'L L. 595 (1996). Professor Jaszi specifically mentioned as a threat recent legislation restoring copyright protection to certain foreign works, thus removing them from the public domain. See id. at 606-07 (discussing 17 U.S.C. § 104A(g) (1994)).
3. Jaszi concludes that "defenders of the public interest must begin to develop evidence and arguments that function, at least to some extent, independently of the specific terms of the Patent and Copyright Clause, and carry on the work of explaining why and to whom the public domain matters." Id. at 611.
4. For evidence of this trend, see 17 U.S.C. § 104A(g); 17 U.S.C. § 302(a), (c) (1976) (extending the term of copyright from 28 years with a 28-year renewal right, to the life of the author plus 50 years). Proposed legislation would further extend protection to the life of the author plus 70 years. See Songwriters Want Copyright in Tune with Laws Overseas; Adding 20 Years Would Bolster Economy, Backers Say, WASH. TIMES, Nov. 1, 1995, at A2. Advocates of consumer interests have combined forces to fight