- Perpetual copyright
Perpetual copyright refers to a
copyright which does not expire. It is highly uncommon, as the current laws of all countries with copyright statutes set a standard limit on the duration, based either on the date of creation/publication, or on the date of the creator's death. (SeeList of countries' copyright length .) Exceptions have sometimes been made, however, for unpublished works. Usually, special legislation is required, granting a perpetual copyright to a specific work."Common law" copyright
Common law once had a doctrine of copyright where unpublished works were restricted by their authors indefinitely. This has been repudiated in the United States and Britain, where the courts have ruled that copyright is a purely legislative state.Fact|date=February 2008Portugal
Portugal amended the Copyright Act in 1927, from its previous 50 years modified Copyright term to "perpetual". However, this stipulation was withdrawn in 1966.Fact|date=February 2008United Kingdom
The UK Copyright Act 1775 established a type of perpetual copyright under which the King James Bible was allowed to be printed only by the Royal printer and by the printers of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. This provision was abolished by the [http://www.opsi.gov.uk/ACTS/acts1988/ukpga_19880048_en_1 Copyright, Designs and patents Act 1988] , but under transitional arrangements (Schedule I, section 13(1)) these printing rights do not fully expire until 2039.
J. M. Barrie 's play "Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up " is covered by special legislation establishing thatGreat Ormond Street Hospital may collect royalties in perpetuity. [cite web|url=http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1988/Ukpga_19880048_en_28.htm|title=Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (c. 48, s. 301)|publisher=Office of Public Sector Information ,United Kingdom ] However, this is not strictly-speaking a perpetual copyright because the hospital does not retain creative control over the work. [cite web|url=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=507439|title=Mystery man leaves £20,000 in a brown paper bag at Great Ormond Street Hospital reception|last=Gysin|first=Christian|coauthors=McDermott, Nick|date=11 Jan 2008|publisher=Daily Mail ] Note that the provision applies to the play and to performances and adaptations of it, not to the earlier Peter Pan stories in "The Little White Bird ".United States
In the
United States , perpetual copyright is prohibited by the US Constitution, which provides that copyright must be "for limited times". However, it does not specify how long that term can be, and it has successively been extended by Congress, retroactively extending the terms of any copyrights still in force. Some have argued that two consecutive extensions of the copyright term in the 1970s and 1990s have created a "de facto" "perpetual copyright on the installment plan", but this argument has been rejected by the US Supreme Court in "Eldred v. Ashcroft ", which held that the term of copyright may be extended by Congress, so long as it is still a limited term at the time of each extension. [cite web|url=http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Eldred_v._Ashcroft|title=Eldred v. Ashcroft - Wikisource]Singapore
Pursuant to Section 197 of the Copyright Act, unpublished governmental literary, dramatic and musical works are under perpetual copyright, but once published, they are copyrighted for 70 years following publication. [cite web|url=http://statutes.agc.gov.sg/non_version/cgi-bin/cgi_getdata.pl?actno=2006-REVED-63&doctitle=Copyright%20Act%0a&segid=1138345608-006559#1138345608-006621|title=Copyright Act (c. 63, s. 197) - Provisions as to Government copyright|publisher=The Attorney-General’s Chambers,
Singapore ]References
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
