The Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act was passed in 1998, extending the term of copyright protection from 50 years to 70 years from the date of death of the author. Works by corporations were given protection for 95 years from the date of creation. The legislation became known as the Mickey Mouse Act because Disney had pushed to have it passed before the expiry of its copyright in Mickey Mouse expired in 2003. As the law currently stands, Mickey Mouse is protected until 2023.
The lawsuit, which is now supported by a number of internet publishers, consumer bodies and academics, asserts that Congress overstepped its authority and violated the Constitution’s principle of free speech by extending the protection of copyright.
In fact, those bringing the case point out that Congress has extended copyrights 11 times in the past 40 years which, they argue, “has rendered meaningless” the Constitution’s “plain and express intent to restrict the duration of monopolies over speech.”
The Act brought the US position largely into line with that in the EU which, by a Directive of 1993, became, for most works, 70 years from the date of death of the author and, for corporations, 70 years from the start of the year in which the work was created.