FutureTense

The extension of copyright was pushed through by well heeled conglomerates who marketed the change to the American public as necessary to provide proper compensation to the creators. This line was largely swallowed, hook line and sinker by industry groups supposed to defend and represent creators, such as SFWA.

Honestly, they should have known better.

What actually happened is……the average creator is no better off. Can most musicians expect people to purchase their CD two or three decades after the tour ended? Realistically, how many writers keep their book in print for their lifetimes, plus seventy years?

The media conglomerates have been the big beneficiaries of the change. Because contract law currently allows copyright to be transferred, copyright extension, is, in fact, working against the average artist. The extension allows a large company to make money over a longer period, raising the stakes and encouraging draconian “surrender all rights” style contracts. These “all rights” contracts, such as the AOL-Time-Warner contract being fought by the National Writer’s Union, were rare 10 years ago but are almost industry standard now.