May 16, 2003
We are close to getting a bill introduced to help right the wrong of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act. This bill, now titled "The Public Domain Enhancement Act," would require a copyright owner, 50 years after a work is published, to pay a $1 maintenance fee. If the owner pays the fee, the copyright continues. If the owner does not pay the fee, the work passes into the public domain. We estimate under this bill, 98% of copyrighted works would pass into the public domain in just 50 years.
We are close, but the lobbyists have already started the battle against this bill. Please write your Representative and Senator, and ask them to be the first to introduce this bill. Point them to this site, and ask them to respond to your request.
If we can just get this idea introduced, then we can begin to build a movement around this obvious compromise to the current extremism. But it will only happen if you do something to get it going. Please help now.
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