As the old adage goes, ask a simple question and you’ll get a simple answer. So one might think a question like “how long does a copyright last” would merit an equally concise answer like “the life of the author plus 70 years.” Of course, nothing in life is as simple as it seems and anyone even casually familiar with U.S. copyright law knows that how long a copyright lasts may depend on several factors such as when the work was written, whether it was registered or published in the United States, and whether it was the result of individual or corporate authorship. Generally, how long a copyright lasts depends upon what was provided by law at the time the work was created, so a work created in 1925 is treated differently than one created in 1965.

Complication of U.S. copyright law aside, determining when a copyright was applicable has not been a complicated matter for those who wished to reproduce or perform works they did not create. Either the work was under copyright and you paid for the privilege (or otherwise got permission) or it had lapsed into the public domain and could be freely reproduced without cost or consent. Works that were in the public domain yesterday, or last year, or ten years ago, would stay in the public domain because they either never attained copyright protection or the protection had lapsed. That was, until the Supreme Court rendered its very recent decision in the case of Golan v. Holder. Things have now gotten a little more complicated.

U.S. Copyright Law and Works of Foreign Origin

For most of the history of U.S. copyright law, works of foreign authorship have been given substantially less protection than works created in the United States or, in many cases, no protection at all. The United States was a relative late-comer in joining the 1886 Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (Berne), having become a member only as recently as 1989. Then, in 1994, Congress enacted Section 514 of the Uruguay Round Agreement Act (URAA), which had the effect of granting U.S. copyright protection to previously unprotected works provided that they were also protected in their country of origin under Berne. This meant that great works of music by the likes of Prokofiev or Shostakovich, paintings by Picasso, and films by Hitchcock previously unavailing of U.S. copyright protection would suddenly be snatched back from the elysian fields of the public domain and reproducing or performing them was going to start costing.