27 Sep
2013
27 Sep
'13
12:32 a.m.
Rick Moen wrote:
I don't know how the U.S. copyright system works in this respect, except that it is retroactive, allegedly for the purpose of protecting what critics used to call "the mouse that ate the public domain".
US copyright extensions have _not_ had retroactive effect: The Sonny Bono act did not remove any works from the public domain.
They're retroactive in the sense that they extend the copyright lifetime of works already published, though.