Page:H.R. Rep. No. 94-1476 (1976) Page 047.djvu



The purpose of the proposed legislation, as amended, is to provide for a general revision of the United States Copyright Law, title 17 of the United States Code.

The first copyright law of the United States was enacted by the First Congress in 1790, in exercise of the constitutional 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” (U.S. Constitution, Art. I, sec. 8). Comprehensive revisions were enacted, at intervals of about 40 years, in 1831, 1870, and 1909. The present copyright law, title 17 of the United States Code, is basically the same as the act of 1909.

Since that time significant changes in technology have affected the operation of the copyright law. Motion pictures and sound recordings had just made their appearance in 1909, and radio and television were still in the early stages of their development. During the past half century a wide range of new techniques for capturing and communicating printed matter, visual images, and recorded sounds have come into use, and the increasing use of information storage and retrieval devices, communications satellites, and laser technology promises even greater changes in the near future. The technical advances have generated new industries and new methods for the reproduction and dissemination of copyrighted works, and the business relations between authors and users have evolved new patterns.

Between 1924 and 1940 a number of copyright law revision measures were introduced. All these failed of enactment, partly because of controversy among private interests over differences between the Berne Convention and the U.S. law. After World War II, the United States participated in the development of the new Universal Copyright Convention, becoming a party in 1955.

In that year, the movement for general revision of the U.S. copyright law was revived and the legislative appropriations act for the next 3 years provided funds for a comprehensive program of research and studies by the Copyright Office as the groundwork for such revision. There followed a period of study which produced 35 published monographs on most of the major substantive issues in copyright revision, and culminated in 1961 in the “Report of the Register of Copyrights on the General Revision of the U.S. Copyright Law.”

Between 1961 and 1964 there were numerous meetings and discussions under the auspices of the Copyright Office, participated in by representatives of a wide range of interests affected by the copyright law. Gradually a draft bill for general revision took shape, and toward the end of the 88th Congress, on July 20, 1964, it was introduced in both Houses. The 1964 revision bill was introduced in the House of Representatives, as HR. 11947, and in the Senate by request, as S. 3008.

No further legislative action was taken on the revision bill during the 88th Congress, but before the opening of the 89th Congress the