HR 863 Copyright Reform Act of 2017

##Copyright Reform Act of 2017

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Whereas, The purpose of copyright is to, “promote the Progress of Science and the useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors … the exclusive Right to their respective Writings” (US Constitution, Article I, Section 8, paragraph 8);

Whereas, The terms of copyright protections are, at present, far longer than they need to be;

Whereas, Some authors, for one purpose or another, wish to completely surrender their works into the public domain;

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

(a) SHORT TITLE.— This act may be referred to as the “Copyright Reform Act of 2017.”

SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.

(a) TERM.—The term ‘copyright’ shall refer to registered or unregistered copyright rights to a work protected by law.

(b) TERM.—The term ‘copyright holder’ shall refer to a person, corporation, or other entity which holds exclusive or partial copyright to a work.

(c) TERM.—The term ‘author’ shall refer to the person, persons, corporation, corporations, or other entity or entities who originally produced a copyrighted work.

SEC. 3. SUBSTANCE

(a) All copyright shall terminate after thirty years effect, upon the death of the original author or authors of the copyrighted work, or upon agreement of all copyright holders to terminate said copyright, whichever comes first.

SEC. 4. ENACTMENT

(a) ENACTMENT.—This act shall take effect 120 days after its passage.

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Propose amendments below. Reminder that due to House Rule 12, one cannot strike everything from a bill. You have 24 hours to propose amendments.