In a message dated 5/11/2006 11:02:49 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
thompson@... writes:

Rich Orr wrote:

Before the current law was adopted a copyright was for 17 years but
it was renewable.

Don't know where you got this number, Rich, but the right number
is 28 years, renewable once. That's why 1922 is a magic year: 1922 +
two 28-year terms = 1978, the date at which a new law went into effect.
The story on extensions and term changes in copyrights not yet expired
by 1978 is a nightmare if you don't love law books, so I won't try to
go there.




Tony,

I think I confused the length of patent rights with the length of copyright.
Prior to June 8, 1995 a patent was good for 17 years. Effective that date
the length was changed to 20 years.

On another note, there can be exceptions to the copyright law. I am a
member of an organization which is incorporated by an Act of Congress. In the act
creating the corporation, Congress granted patents and copyrights in
perpetuity for all logos, medals, symbols, publications to the corporation. A
search of Federal statutes and regulations regarding copyright and patent will
never reveal this. It simply hasn't been codified. Even though it cannot be
located easily, we have successfully protected a patent in Federal court based
on the language in the Congressional articles of incorporation. In fact, the
corporation which was importing replicas of our membership badge, was
prosecuted by the US Customs service.

Rich Orr



Rich Orr