By Teghan O'Connell
In 1998, President Bill Clinton signed the Sonny Bono Act into law. The act, also known as the Mickey Mouse Protection Act, extended the length of copyright protection for works registered or published before 1923 by 20 years. [1] The Sonny Bono Act guaranteed protection for the works until 2019, and protected Disney’s Winnie the Pooh until 2022, and “Steamboat Willie” (an early version of Mickey Mouse) until 2024. [2]
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Created to match the length of copyright protection which Europe granted works created before 1923, the Sonny Bono Act differed from the EU’s as it did not revive works whose protection has already lapsed. Instead, its goal was consistency between the laws in the US and Europe. [1]
Many big entertainment companies, like Disney, Universal, Warner, and even the NFL, pushed for this change in legislation. Disney’s extensive lobbying for this act to pass is why it is known as the “Mickey Mouse Protection Act.” [2] The congressman who led the charge for this protection was Salvatore “Sonny” Bono, former husband of the singer Cher and half of the “Sonny and Cher” duo. Congressman Bono was invested in passing this bill as he wanted to protect his own works in acting, singing, and songwriting. [3] Unfortunately, Congressman Bono passed away before this bill was signed into law.
The bill extended the length of copyright protection by 20 years for both authors and corporate works (works made for hire). The result was a protection period of life plus 70 years for authors of regular works, and 95 years from publication (or 120 years from creation, whichever comes first) for works made for hire. The reason for this extension was so the surviving family of the authors would benefit from their work. [4]
[1] Tad Crawford and Laura Mankin, The Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act, ibpa PubSpot (Jul. 1, 1999), https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/the-sonny-bono-copyright-term-extension-act
[2] AshleyHarp8, Protecting the Mouse- The Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998, Foundations of Law and Society (Dec. 9, 2020), https://foundationsoflawandsociety.wordpress.com/2020/12/09/protecting-the-mouse-the-copyright-term-extension-act-of-1998/
[3] AshleyHarp8, Protecting the Mouse- The Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998, Foundations of Law and Society (Dec. 9, 2020), https://foundationsoflawandsociety.wordpress.com/2020/12/09/protecting-the-mouse-the-copyright-term-extension-act-of-1998/
[4] Tad Crawford and Laura Mankin, The Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act, ibpa PubSpot (Jul. 1, 1999), https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/the-sonny-bono-copyright-term-extension-act