Reclaim the Rule of the Shorter Term in the USA

When 17 U.S.C. 104(c) does not consider the Berne Convention superior to the American law, it reads: "Any rights in a work eligible for protection under this title that derive from this title, ......, shall not be expanded or reduced by virtue of, or in reliance upon, the provisions of the Berne Convention, or the adherence of the United States thereto." When 17U.S.C.104A since January 1, 1996 started automatic copyright restoration in many works created or published outside the United States, it granted American copyright term without honoring the rule of the shorter term provided in Article 7.8 of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. These would make certain works published outside the USA copyrighted in the USA even if their copyrights in their source countries have expired earlier. When the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 added 20 years of copyright term, those non-American works could remained copyrighted in the USA for even longer term.

There are many works whose copyright holders can no longer be easily contacted. These works are now known as orphan works. Whilst they continue to be legally copyrighted even if their commercial values have been abandoned, the public cannot legally reuse them other than claiming fair use. These problems are impeding cultural developments.

As the server of various Wikimedia projects is physically located in Florida, USA, all users of these projects are subject to Title 17 of the United States Code concerning copyright. Without honoring the rule of the shorter term provided in Article 7.8 of the Berne Convention to release non-American works into the public domain when their copyrights expire in their source countries, Wikimedia websites users are unfairly denied the rights to legally contribute information that is free to use in their home countries. This is why we, the undersigned users and supporters of various Wikimedia projects, including Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Wikibooks, Wikinews, Wikiquote, Wikisource, Wikiversity, Wikimedia Commons, Wikispecies, and Meta-Wiki, are writing to you.

Section 8 of Article I of the United States Constitution gives the Congress the power to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries. As we see no progress of science and useful arts by denying the rule of the shorter term, we would like to kindly ask the Congress to consider a major change to the USA Copyright Act.

We would like to kindly ask the Congress to amend Title 17, United States Code, Sections 104(c) and 104A to honor the rule of the shorter term provided in Article 7.8 of the Berne Convention, so once the copyright of a work published outside the USA expires in its source country, its copyright also expires in the USA. The European Union, a major trading partner of the USA, and many other countries and areas, have honored the rule of the shorter term, so we see no more good reasons for the USA to stay out of this important rule.

To truly promote the progress of science and useful arts, copyright protection and public domain must be balanced. As the American non-acceptance of the rule of the shorter term is now in the way of the progress of cultural development, science and useful arts, please consider our important suggestion. Thank you.