In an unexpected decision, the U.S. Supreme Court on February 19, 2002, accepted an appeal of a Federal Circuit court’s ruling in Eldred v. Ashcroft , which had upheld the constitutionality of the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (the Act).

The primary issue is whether the Act, by which the U.S. Congress added an additional 20 years to existing and prospective copyright terms, violates the U.S. Constitution which provides for the protection of copyrights for “limited times” and to “promote the progress of science and useful arts.” The Act was promoted by an array of largely corporate and established copyright owners, such as the Walt Disney Company, whose copyrights in such early works as Mickey Mouse’s beginnings as a cartoon character “Steamboat Willie,” were set to expire in the near future. Also, by extending the term in the U.S., the Act brought into harmony the current U.S. term of copyright with that of European Union member countries, e.g., a term of life of an individual author plus 70 years (prior to the Act the U.S. term had been life of the author plus 50 years).

The appellant in the case, Eric Eldred, operates an Internet site featuring public domain works. He and a number of supporters in the academic and artistic communities argue that the Act’s extension is unconstitutionally long and unreasonably reduces the number of public domain works available to the greater community, which is especially needed given the opportunity to utilize such public domain works over the Internet. For example, the Act grants a term of copyright protection of 95 years from the date of publication for many works published between 1923 and 1978.

Although the Act has already been upheld by lower courts, the Supreme Court has not been adverse to limiting Congressional power in other areas and may regard the Act’s broad extension of the term as beyond the scope of the U.S. Constitution’s original vision. In any event, the Supreme Court’s ruling in this case has the potential to be one of the most important copyright decisions in many years. The oral argument before the Court will be held during its 2002-2003 term that begins in Fall 2002.