On 18 January 2012 the U.S. Supreme Court upheldthe authority of U.S. Congress to extend the scope of copyright protection to foreign works that have already entered the public
domain saying that it neither violatesthe Constitution’s copyright
clausenor the First Amendment’s guarantee of free expression. (To
obtain the judgement, please visit HERE)
The issue raised in Golan v. Holder concerns
the Uruguay Round Agreements Act (URAA) of 1994 which was signed by the US Congress
in order to bring the country’s copyright law in line with and the international copyright laws (including the Berne Convention and the TRIPS
agreement). The agreement amend the U. S. copyright law and
under Section 514, it granted copyright protection to a set of foreign works
that were previously in the American public domain. As a result, a group of
petitioners (including orchestra conductors, educators, performers, film
archivists, and motion picture distributors), who had formerly enjoyed free
availability of certain works, protested against the federal government’s
restoration of the copyright protection. Among other things, they claimed that
First Amendment interests of a higher order were at stake.
However, the justices said that “neither the Copyright
and Patent Clause nor the First Amendment, we hold, makes the public domain, in
any and all cases, a territory that works may never exit” and added that it is
in U. S. interest to “secure greater protection for U. S. authors abroad, and
remedying unequal treatment of foreign authors”.
In Europe, EU laws (Directive 2006/116/EC)
provides a longer term of protection for authors and the protected work can
only be considered in the public domain 70 years after the death of the author.
The term of protection has recently extended to music and other sound
recordings.
Further information can be found HERE