U.S.A. Copyright Law - Library of Congress. Copyright Office (best sales books of all time txt) 📗

class="calibre1">whichever is later.

(4) The termination shall be effected by serving an advance notice in

writing upon the grantee or the grantee's successor in title. In the

case of a grant executed by a person or persons other than the author,

the notice shall be signed by all of those entitled to terminate the

grant under clause (1) of this subsection, or by their duly authorized

agents. In the case of a grant executed by one or more of the authors of

the work, the notice as to any one author's share shall be signed by

that author or his or her duly authorized agent or, if that author is

dead, by the number and proportion of the owners of his or her

termination interest required under clauses (1) and (2) of this

subsection, or by their duly authorized agents.

(A) The notice shall state the effective date of the termination, which

shall fall within the five-year period specified by clause (3) of this

subsection, or, in the case of a termination under subsection (d),

within the five-year period specified by subsection (d)(2), and the

notice shall be served not less than two or more than ten years before

that date. A copy of the notice shall be recorded in the Copyright

Office before the effective date of termination, as a condition to its

taking effect.

(B) The notice shall comply, in form, content, and manner of service,

with requirements that the Register of Copyrights shall prescribe by

regulation.

(5) Termination of the grant may be effected notwithstanding any

agreement to the contrary, including an agreement to make a will or to

make any future grant.

(6) In the case of a grant executed by a person or persons other than

the author, all rights under this title that were covered by the

terminated grant revert, upon the effective date of termination, to all

of those entitled to terminate the grant under clause (1) of this

subsection. In the case of a grant executed by one or more of the

authors of the work, all of a particular author's rights under this

title that were covered by the terminated grant revert, upon the

effective date of termination, to that author or, if that author is

dead, to the persons owning his or her termination interest under clause

(2) of this subsection, including those owners who did not join in

signing the notice of termination under clause (4) of this subsection.

In all cases the reversion of rights is subject to the following

limitations:

(A) A derivative work prepared under authority of the grant before its

termination may continue to be utilized under the terms of the grant

after its termination, but this privilege does not extend to the

preparation after the termination of other derivative works based upon

the copyrighted work covered by the terminated grant.

(B) The future rights that will revert upon termination of the grant

become vested on the date the notice of termination has been served as

provided by clause (4) of this subsection.

(C) Where the author's rights revert to two or more persons under clause

(2) of this subsection, they shall vest in those persons in the

proportionate shares provided by that clause. In such a case, and

subject to the provisions of subclause (D) of this clause, a further

grant, or agreement to make a further grant, of a particular author's

share with respect to any right covered by a terminated grant is valid

only if it is signed by the same number and proportion of the owners, in

whom the right has vested under this clause, as are required to

terminate the grant under clause (2) of this subsection. Such further

grant or agreement is effective with respect to all of the persons in

whom the right it covers has vested under this subclause, including

those who did not join in signing it. If any person dies after rights

under a terminated grant have vested in him or her, that person's legal

representatives, legatees, or heirs at law represent him or her for

purposes of this subclause.

(D) A further grant, or agreement to make a further grant, of any right

covered by a terminated grant is valid only if it is made after the

effective date of the termination. As an exception, however, an

agreement for such a further grant may be made between the author or any

of the persons provided by the first sentence of clause (6) of this

subsection, or between the persons provided by subclause (C) of this

clause, and the original grantee or such grantee's successor in title,

after the notice of termination has been served as provided by clause

(4) of this subsection.

(E) Termination of a grant under this subsection affects only those

rights covered by the grant that arise under this title, and in no way

affects rights arising under any other Federal, State, or foreign laws.

(F) Unless and until termination is effected under this subsection, the

grant, if it does not provide otherwise, continues in effect for the

remainder of the extended renewal term.

(d) Termination Rights Provided in Subsection (c) Which Have Expired on

or Before the Effective Date of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension

Act. In the case of any copyright other than a work made for hire,

subsisting in its renewal term on the effective date of the Sonny Bono

Copyright Term Extension Act [9] for which the termination right provided

in subsection (c) has expired by such date, where the author or owner of

the termination right has not previously exercised such termination

right, the exclusive or nonexclusive grant of a transfer or license of

the renewal copyright or any right under it, executed before January 1,

1978, by any of the persons designated in subsection (a)(1)(C) of this

section, other than by will, is subject to termination under the

following conditions:

(1) The conditions specified in subsections (c) (1), (2), (4), (5), and

(6) of this section apply to terminations of the last 20 years of

copyright term as provided by the amendments made by the Sonny Bono

Copyright Term Extension Act.

(2) Termination of the grant may be effected at any time during a period

of 5 years beginning at the end of 75 years from the date copyright was

originally secured.

Section 305. Duration of copyright: Terminal date

All terms of copyright provided by sections 302 through 304 run to the

end of the calendar year in which they would otherwise expire.

Chapter 3 Endnotes

1 Private Law 92-60, 85 Stat. 857, effective December 15, 1971, states

that:

[A]ny provision of law to the contrary notwithstanding, copyright is

hereby granted to the trustees under the will of Mary Baker Eddy, their

successors, and assigns, in the work "Science and Health with Key to the

Scriptures" (entitled also in some editions "Science and Health" or

"Science and Health; with a Key to the Scriptures"), by Mary Baker Eddy,

including all editions thereof in English and translation heretofore

published, or hereafter published by or on behalf of said trustees,

their successors or assigns, for a term of seventy-five years from the

effective date of this Act or from the date of first publication,

whichever is later.

But *cf. United Christian Scientists v. Christian Science Board of

Directors, First Church of Christ, Scientist*, 829 F.2d 1152, 4 USPQ2d

1177 (D.C. Cir. 1987) (holding Priv. L. 92-60, 85 Stat. 857, to be

unconstitutional because it violates the Establishment Clause).

2 The Berne Convention Implementation Act of 1988 amended section 301

by adding at the end thereof subsection (e). Pub. L. No. 100-568, 102

Stat. 2853, 2857. In 1990, the Architectural Works Copyright Protection

Act amended section 301(b) by adding at the end thereof paragraph (4).

Pub. L. No. 101-650, 104 Stat. 5133, 5134. The Visual Artists Rights Act

of 1990 amended section 301 by adding at the end thereof subsection (f).

Pub. L. No. 101-650, 104 Stat. 5089, 5131. In 1998, the Sonny Bono

Copyright Term Extension Act amended section 301 by changing "February

15, 2047" to "February 15, 2067" each place it appeared in subsection

(c). Pub. L. No. 105-298, 112 Stat. 2827.

3 The Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990, which added subsection (f),

states, "Subject to subsection (b) and except as provided in subsection

(c), this title and the amendments made by this title take effect 6

months after the date of the enactment of this Act," that is, six months

after December 1, 1990. Pub. L. No. 101-650, 104 Stat. 5089, 5132. See

also endnote 37, chapter 1.

4 In 1998, the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act amended section

302 by substituting "70" for "fifty," "95" for "seventy-five" and "120"

for "one hundred" each place they appeared. Pub. L. No. 105-298, 112

Stat. 2827.

5 In 1997, section 303 was amended by adding subsection (b). Pub. L.

No. 105-80, 111 Stat. 1529, 1534. In 1998, the Sonny Bono Copyright Term

Extension Act amended section 303 by substituting "December 31, 2047"

for "December 31, 2027." Pub. L. No. 105-298, 112 Stat. 2827.

6 The Copyright Renewal Act of 1992 amended section 304 by substituting

a new subsection (a) and by making a conforming amendment in the matter

preceding paragraph (1) of subsection (c). Pub. L. No. 102-307, 106

Stat. 264. The Act, as amended by the Sonny Bono Copyright Term

Extension Act, states that the renewal and extension of a copyright for

a further term of 67 years "shall have the same effect with respect to

any grant, before the effective date of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term

Extension Act [October 27, 1998], of a transfer or license of the

further term as did the renewal of a copyright before the effective date

of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act [October 27, 1998] under

the law in effect at the time of such grant." The Act also states that

the 1992 amendments "shall apply only to those copyrights secured

between January 1, 1964, and December 31, 1977. Copyrights secured

before January 1, 1964, shall be governed by the provisions of section

304(a) of title 17, United States Code, as in effect on the day before .

. .[enactment on June 26, 1992], except each reference to forty-seven

years in such provisions shall be deemed to be 67 years." Pub. L. No.

102-307, 106 Stat. 264, 266, as amended by the Sonny Bono Copyright Term

Extension Act, Pub. L. No. 105-298, 112 Stat. 2827, 2828.

In 1998, the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act amended section 304

by substituting "67" for "47" wherever it appeared in subsection (a), by

substituting a new subsection (b) and by adding subsection (d) at the

end thereof. Pub. L. No. 105-298, 112 Stat. 2827. That Act also amended

subsection 304(c) by deleting "by his widow or her widower and his or

her children or grandchildren" from the first sentence of paragraph (2),

by adding subparagraph (D) at the end of paragraph (2) and by inserting

"or, in the case of a termination under subsection (d), within the five-

year period specified by subsection (d)(2)," into the first sentence of

subparagraph (4)(A). Id.

7 A series of nine Acts of Congress extended until December 31, 1976,

previously renewed copyrights in which the renewal term would otherwise

have expired between September 19, 1962 and December 31, 1976. The last

of these enactments is Pub. L. No. 93-573, 88 Stat. 1873, enacted

December 31, 1974, which cites the eight earlier acts. See also section

102 of the Transitional and Supplementary Provisions of the Copyright

Act of 1976, in Part I of the Appendix. Pub. L. No. 94-553, 90 Stat.

2541.

8 The effective date of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act is

October 27, 1998.

9 See endnote 8, supra.

Chapter 4

Copyright Notice, Deposit, and Registration

Notice of copyright: Visually perceptible