3 ms·
I don't think so. Copyright already has an equivalent rule in the constitution, and that applies to the whole term, not just to transfers of copyright in a will
by kmeisthax 4y ago
I don't think so. Copyright already has an equivalent rule in the constitution, and that applies to the whole term, not just to transfers of copyright in a will.
That being said, the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act and the subsequent SCOTUS case Eldred v. Ashcroft[0] showed that this rule is very flimsy. The biggest protection against copyright perpetuities is that Congress currently shows no appetite for a further extension. The life+70 extension we got last time happened in a time when copyright was an uncontroversial and boring matter. This stopped being the case just a few years after the CTEA, when the masses realized that this fancy new digital realm called the Internet was functionally owned by whoever owned the copyrights on the data running through it.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eldred_v._Ashcroft https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eldred_v._Ashcroft