Today U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) introduced the Copyright Clause Restoration Act, a new bill to strip woke corporations like Disney of special copyright protections. Senator Hawley’s bill would limit new copyright protections to 56 years and make the change retroactive for massive corporations like Disney that have been granted unnecessarily long copyright monopolies.
Senator Hawley said, “the age of Republican handouts to Big Business is over. Thanks to special copyright protections from Congress, woke corporations like Disney have earned billions while increasingly pandering to woke activists. It’s time to take away Disney’s special privileges and open up a new era of creativity and innovation.”
Under Congress’s current sweetheart deal, companies like Disney have been granted certain copyright protections for up to 120 years—well beyond the original maximum of 28 years. Senator Hawley’s bill would crack down on copyright monopolies to ensure they only last long enough to encourage innovation.
Bill text can be found here.
Background
The Copyright Clause Restoration Act would:
- Limit new copyrights to 56 years, the same period that persisted for most of the 20th century, which is plenty of incentive to encourage authorship.
- Make this change retroactive for the biggest entertainment companies, including Disney, that were granted unnecessarily long monopolies. Under this legislation, Disney would begin to lose protections for some of its oldest and most valuable copyrights.
- Delay implementation for certain license holders, to reasonably protect pre-existing contracts.