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Another Reason to Dislike the Sonny Bono CTEA
Posted by Ernest Miller on Tuesday, November 05 @ 21:59:47 EST Copyright
The BBC reports that Disney is using a loophole in the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act [PDF] to avoid over $1 Billion in liability for theft and piracy of Winnie-the-Pooh's copyright (Disney claims victory in Pooh tussle). Disney is contesting a lawsuit for systematically under reporting the royalties they owe to the people who own Pooh's copyright - which has been leased to Disney since 1961. The plaintiffs against Disney represent those who purchased the Pooh copyrights from A.A. Milne back in the 1920s.

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Without the SBCTEA, Pooh would enter the public domain in 2006. However, Pooh is now expected to enter the public domain in 2026. Interestingly, though 17 USC 304 provides that authors and certain of their heirs may terminate any licensing agreements they may have made for copyrights prior to the extension (there is a specific time frame for this). So, for example, if you licensed a copyrighted work to the end of the copyright, that copyright has now been extended another 20 years. Congress decided that you (or your heirs) should be able to renegotiate that license for the remaining twenty years. Thus, licensees would not get a windfall simply because of the extension.

It is not clear how this will benefit Disney in the current litigation except that, since they are claiming that they hold a license renegotiated with Milnes' heirs for Pooh after 2004, Disney is in a much better position to negotiate a settlement to the current suit.

Frankly, I think that this loophole should be widely publicized. Widows and grandchildren and other heirs should begin to terminate the rights that companys think they have purchased. For example, had Disney purchased the rights to Pooh outright, Pooh's heirs could then terminate Disney's rights, rather than the people who currently own them. Of course, even better would be if the SBCTEA is declared unconstitutional, Disney loses the case, and the greedy idiots who have been thriving off of Milne's work in the 1920s were to stop getting royalties.

Also, I never before noted that 17 USC 304 is fascinatingly complicated and shows what an administrative pain-in-the-rear the SBCTEA really is.

Other coverage:
Reuters - Tug-Of-War Over Winnie the Pooh Heats Up
Yahoo! Australia & NZ - Disney Eyes Pooh Rights in 2004, Legal Foe Says No

 
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Related Links
· BBC
· Disney
· Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act
· Winnie-the-Pooh
· Disney claims victory in Pooh tussle
· A.A. Milne
· 17 USC 304
· Reuters
· Tug-Of-War Over Winnie the Pooh Heats Up
· Yahoo! Australia & NZ
· Disney Eyes Pooh Rights in 2004, Legal Foe Says No
· More about Copyright
· News by Ernest Miller


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Re: Another Reason to Dislike the Sonny Bono CTEA (Score: 0)
by Anonymous (Name Withheld on Advice of Counsel) on Wednesday, November 06 @ 09:37:59 EST
"greedy idiots who have been thriving off of Milne's work"

Are you saying that heirs to intellectual properties are idiots because they're greedy or greedy because they are idiots or just independently greedy and idiots?

Do you know much about Milne's heirs? I found some information here [www.suntimes.co.za] and here [www.suntimes.co.za].

"A Milne family trust distributed the money to four principal beneficiaries. A London men's club to which A.A. Milne once belonged received $88 million; the members decided to set up a scholarship fund for actors and writers. An additional $88 million went to the British boarding school that Milne attended as a boy. The Royal Literary Fund for struggling writers was given $132 million. The $44 million remaining was put in a trust named for Clare Milne, the author's granddaughter, who has cerebral palsy; the trust pays benefits to her and other disabled people."


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Re: Another Reason to Dislike the Sonny Bono CTEA (Score: 0)
by Anonymous (Name Withheld on Advice of Counsel) on Wednesday, November 06 @ 09:56:33 EST
The Bono Act is flawed not because it provides termination rights to some heirs, but because it denies termination rights to heirs who already exercised them under the 1976 law. If under the 1976 law your renegotiated the terms of the license for the extra 19 years, this new contract now goes for 39 years: a possible windfall for the licensee, possibly nothing for you.

In any case, termination is complex. Professor Patry thinks that the requirements to terminate an assignmnet are more difficult to comply with than the old renewal requirements.


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Let Me Get This Straight (Score: 1)
by MurphysLaw on Wednesday, November 06 @ 11:33:31 EST
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Disney is using a *US* Copyright Extension to renegotiate a *Worldwide* exclusive license to the original Pooh? I wonder what other jurisdictions will think of this kind of a ploy.


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