Chapter 10

TRANSITIONAL AND SUPPLEMENTARY PROVISIONS

A. EXPLANATION OF SECTION NUMBERS

The system employed in the bill for numbering sections is one generally used in bills that codify or revise an existing law. Since the numbering system in the bill has been puzzling to some people, however, perhaps it deserves an explanation. As a technical matter the general revision bill consists of 12 sections. SEC. 1 of the bill is the completely revised text of title 17 of the United States Code, which is itself divided into seven chapters that are subdivided into sections, running from § 101 through § 708. SEC. 2 through SEC. 12, coming at the very end of the bill, are "transitional and supplementary" provisions which would not be a part of the new title 17.

B. EFFECTIVE DATE

Section 2 of the Transitional and Supplementary Provisions, which would fix the date on which the revised title 17 would come into effect, provides: "This act becomes effective on January 1, 1967, except as otherwise provided by section 304 (b) of title 17 as amended by this act." The date of "January 1, 1967" was chosen more or less arbitrarily to indicate when the new law would become effective if it were enacted during 1965. It is our thought that at least a year should be allowed after enactment to prepare for adjustments to the changes. the new law would bring with it. The date which is finally chosen as the effective date of the act will therefore depend upon when the general revision bill is enacted.

The exception under section 304 (b) which is referred to in SEC. 2 has to do primarily with the interim extension of subsisting renewal copyrights approved on September 19, 1962 (Public Law 87-668). Under that act, copyrights in their renewal terms that would otherwise have expired between September 19, 1962 and December 31, 1965, were extended to the latter date. Section 304 of the general revision bill would lengthen the renewal term of subsisting copyrights so that their total term would be 75 years. However, if the general revision statute were to be enacted in 1965 but with an effective date of "January 1, 1967," what would happen to the many renewal copyrights that were extended by Public Law 87-668 and are scheduled to expire on December 31, 1965?

Thus, on the undoubtedly optimistic assumption that the revision bill will be enacted during 1965, section 304 (b) would make the total 75-year term applicable to the "duration of any copyright, the renewal term of which is subsisting on December 31, 1965." Likewise, since they are not covered under section 304 (a), subsection (b) also makes the longer term applicable to copyrights renewed between December 31, 1965 and December 31, 1966. The dates specified in section 304 (b) would, of course, need to be changed if the revision bill is not enacted in 1965 or if, as proposed in H.J. Res. 431 which is now pending, Congress enacts another interim extension of subsisting renewal copyrights.

C. WORKS IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN

The first sentence of SEC. 3 provides that the act "does not provide copyright protection for any work that goes into the public domain before January 1, 1967," thus making clear that in no case would a lost or expired copyright be revived by the bill. Under the second sentence, the "exclusive rights * * * to reproduce a work in phonorecords and to distribute phonorecords of the work, do not extend to any nondramatic musical work copyrighted before July 1, 1909." This provision is a vestige of the act of 1909, which in granting a "mechanical recording" right in music, expressly limited that right to compositions copyrighted after July 1, 1909. The provision of SEC. 3 is necessary to make clear that works copyrighted before that date could not acquire recording rights under the bill.

D. EXISTING PRESIDENTIAL PROCLAMATIONS

SEC. 4 concerns the status of proclamations with respect to the protection of foreign works, issued by the President under the copyright statutes existing before the effective date of the present bill. It is intended to make clear that these proclamations "shall continue in force until terminated, suspended, or revised by the President," and are not terminated by the revision of the statute.

E. SUPERSEDED PROVISION ON GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS

Section 52 of the Printing Act of 1895, which would be repealed by SEC. 5 of the bill, prohibits copyright in any "Government publication." Since this prohibition would be covered by section 105 of the bill, which uses the broader term "work of the United States Government," SEC. 5 carries out the 1961 Report's recommendation that the vestigial provision in the Printing Act be repealed "to avoid duplication and possible confusion."

F. EXISTING COMPULSORY LICENSES FOR MECHANICAL REPRODUCTIONS OF MUSIC

Sections 1(e) and 101 (e) of the present statute provide for a compulsory license with respect to the making of "parts of instruments" (that is, "phonorecords") for the "mechanical reproduction" of a musical work, which can be obtained by serving a notice on the copyright owner. As explained in chapter 2 of this Supplementary Report, section 113 of the revision bill would provide for a similar compulsory license, but with a number of changes in specific features. The most notable changes would involve the statutory royalty rate and the remedies of the copyright owner upon default in the payment of royalties.

SEC. 6 deals with the status of compulsory licenses that have already been obtained on the date when the revised law comes into effect. It is intended to permit a person who has obtained a compulsory license under the present statute to continue, after the revised statute becomes effective, "to make and distribute such parts embodying the same mechanical reproduction without obtaining a new compulsory license ***." However, any new "mechanical reproduction" would be subject to the new provisions of section 113: if a compulsory licensee under the present law wishes to make and distribute phonorecords of a different recording of the same song under the revised law, he would have to follow the procedure set out in section 113 for obtaining a compulsory license. Moreover, as SEC. 6 makes clear, any phonorecords "made after January 1, 1967” (including those for which a compulsory license had been obtained before that date) would be subject to the provisions of the new statute; unless he and the copyright owner agree otherwise, the compulsory licensee would be subject to the higher royalty rate, and the revised provisions on payment and default, with respect to any phonorecords he makes after the revised law becomes effective.

G. AD INTERIM COPYRIGHTS

The “ad interim" provisions in sections 22 and 23 of the present law represent an exception to the manufacturing requirements. Where an English-language book or periodical would otherwise not be protected under the statute because it has been manufactured abroad, a special procedure is provided under which temporary protection can be secured for an "ad interim" period of 5 years. The ad interim copyright is secured by registration in the Copyright Office within 6 months after first publication abroad. It can be extended to run for the full copyright term by publishing an edition manufac