sinclairlewis Ficbot—check out her cogent reply to critics of Read an E-Book Week—has run across a gem within John Mark Ockerbloom‘s Online Books Page site. It’s a link-rich list of works of winners of the Nobel, Pulitzer and Newbery prizes. In many cases the writings are free, especially for people outside the Bono-hobbled United States. Here’s the entry for Sinclair Lewis (photo):

1930: Sinclair Lewis (USA, 1885-1951) : English language books online

Notice? This isn’t just a list of books, but also, unwittingly, a policy statement—documenting the damage that copyright term extension has done to the study and enjoyment of literature in the United States. The Sonny Bono Act Copyright Term Extension Act has enriched heirs, not spurred the creation of new masterpieces. Let’s hope that Larry Lessig indeed runs for Congress and can make Bono an issue not just in his race but also the presidential one.

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  2. Several years before the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act became law in the United States there was another major development in copyright law that was arguably more important. Strangely this pivotal development is infrequently mentioned or discussed on this blog.

    The Directive harmonizing the term of copyright protection was adopted in the European Union in 1993. This directive increased the term of copyright to 70 years from the death of the author. This term was longer than the copyright term in the United States in 1993 which was 50 years from the death of the author. The Sonny Bono act was passed in the U.S. in 1998 and some of its supporters cited the changes in the European Union according to Wikipedia:

    After the United States’ accession to the Berne convention, a number of copyright owners successfully lobbied the U.S. Congress for another extension of the term of copyright, to provide for the same term of protection that exists in Europe.

    Developments in the European Union are extraordinarily important to the world economy. The European Union has more citizens than the United States, and in aggregate it has a larger economy than the United States. Directives in the European Union are very influential. The prototypical analysis given by critics of the Sonny Bono Copyright act blames “Hollywood”, “lobbyists” and “campaign gifts”, etc. However, I suspect that the invocation of “Hollywood” would not give much insight into legislative process in the European Union.

    Perhaps some blog reader can discuss why the EU increased the copyright term? What forces were arrayed for and against the change in copyright? Could the EU revert to the previous copyright term?

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