Even As Copyright Office Has Called For Shorter Copyright, USTR Tries Locking US Into Longer Terms

from the because-ustr-doesn't-give-a-fuck dept

Officials settled on the arrangement after agreeing with the US's position on the length of term for copyrights. US representatives want copyrights to last 70 years from the release date of films and music and the deaths of authors of books.

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This is hardly surprising, but even as the head of the US Copyright Office, Maria Pallante, has called for the US to roll back the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, so that copyright would last the life of an author plus an additional 50 years -- rather than the 70 years it is today -- the USTR is working to make sure that can't happen. The latest report from the latest round of negotiations for the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement says that the US has effectively bullied all the other participants into agreeing that the floor for copyright terms must be life + 70.As we've noted repeatedly, this is an old trick for copyright maximalists. Go into secret, backroom international trade agreement negotiations, and get them to agree to something like this -- and then when the issue comes up for reform in Congress, scream loudly how we can't possibly reduce the term of copyrights, because it would "violate our international obligations" and create havoc. We've been reporting on this kind of trick for about a decade and it's been going on for much longer than that. The plan is really nefarious. You get very friendly USTR officials (whose next job will likely be working for the industry to push things through in this secret negotiation, for which there is no public debate or ability to let the public have real input on. Then, when an issue actually comes up for debate in Congress, insist that it's impossible to change due to the "international obligations" that these same industries were responsible for slipping into the agreement in the first place.It's really a disgusting practice -- and despite being called out on it over and over again, the USTR seems to be more than willing to simply do it again. This is yet another reason why Congress should not give the USTR "fast track" authority, as it will back them into a corner, and block their ability to reform copyright law as they would like and the way that even the Copyright Office itself has said copyright law should be reformed.

Filed Under: copyright, copyright reform, copyright term, international obligations, life plus 70, maria pallante, tpp, ustr