Abstract
In contrast to the limited judicial writings on the CTEA, there is a healthy stock of insightful scholarly works on the CTEA festooning the legal journals throughout the country. This article leaps into the scholarly fray and focuses on the domestic policy justifications and assumptions relied upon by Congress in enacting the CTEA. In so doing, this article argues that the CTEA is premised upon a wayward copyright philosophy and unsupported congressional assumptions. The article also posits a modest alternative to the CTEA that would be more consonant with the philosophical tenets of copyright and more apt to achieve the goals Congress set out to accomplish. To those ends, part II of the article provides a fleeting foray into the history and mechanics of our copyright system. Part III discusses the pertinent portions of the CTEA and its legislative history. Part IV discusses why the CTEA represents misguided copyright policy and how its provisions are speculative, at best, in ensuring the public domain will be enriched and nurtured. Part V poses an alternative view of how the statute could have been recast to harmonize with the underlying aims of copyright protection and to better ensure that the stated congressional goals were obtained.
Recommended Citation
J. Michael Keyes, Whatever Happens to Works Deferred?: Reflections on the Ill-Given Deferments of the Copyright Term Extension Act, 26 SEATTLE U. L. REV. 97 (2002).
