Copyright Act

On October 19, 1976, The Copyright Act of 1976 became Public Law number 94-553 and it went into effect in January of 1978. It simply states the rights of copyright holders and made it much more convenient for the renewal of copyrights allowing for an extended period that is based on the date of the creator's death, from how it was prior, which was having to be changed from a fixed period requiring renewal. The Copyright Act of 1976 used in the United States is the primary basis of our copyright laws. It is a very important piece of our legislation that works for our protection.

Prior to the changes made to our Copyright laws in the United States, that was made in 1976, the last major change to the statutory copyright law was made in 1909. Congress was able to note that so many changes had occurred since the adoption of the 1909 Act, whiched included changes in our technologies that consisted of the the television, motion pictures that so many people were able to enjoy, sound recordings that even today continue to expand in their technologies, and of course the technology changes that have occurred in radio. These are just to mention a few of our technological changes over the years, which made a great cause for our Copyright Laws to be amended.

The adoption of the 1976 wasn't just limited to technological changes. Another major example that lead to concerns in the need for this amendment was the development in the Universal Copyright Convention (UCC). The United States became part of the Universal Copyright Convention in 1955. The years following this, Congress put together several different studies for a general amendment to the copyright law, which eventually was put together in a report that was published in 1961. Both the House and the Senate received a draft of this bill in 1964. Of course the original version of this bill has been revised several times between the years of 1964 and 1976. Finally on February 19, 1976, the Senate wisely decided to pass the bill as S. 22 of the 94th Congress by a vote of 97 to 0. On September 22, 1976, the House of Representatives also passed the bill by a vote of 316 to 7. The final version on October 19, 1976, being adopted into law as title 17 of the United States Code, after Gerald R. Ford added his signature. The Copyright Act of 1976 then went into effect on January 1, 1978.

It was considered at the time to be a fair compromise both between publishers' and authors' rights. Barbaro Ringer who was the United States Register of Copyrights, said the new law was 'a balanced compromise that comes down on the authors' and creators' side in almost every instance.

To further protect the authors' rights, the intent of the extension was to protect their rights "for life plsu 50 years--which was the most common term used internationally and that Twain fought for .

The amended Copyright Act preempts any and all previous copyright laws in the U.S, and it includes prior federal legislation as that of the Copyright Act of 1909.