Washington University Law Review Volume 1977 Issue 4 January 1977 RX for Copyright Death Francis M. Nevins Jr. Saint Louis University Follow this and additional works at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/law_lawreview Part of the Intellectual Property Law Commons Recommended Citation Francis M. Nevins Jr., RX for Copyright Death, 1977 WASH. U. L. Q. 601 (1977). Available at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/law_lawreview/vol1977/iss4/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law School at Washington University Open Scholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in Washington University Law Review by an authorized administrator of Washington University Open Scholarship. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. RX FOR COPYRIGHT DEATH FRANCIS M. NEVINS, JR.* INTRODUCTION Prior to the Copyright Revision Act of 1976,1 the statutory protection accorded authors of creative works was divided into an initial and renewal term, each of twenty-eight years duration. 2 For most purposes these terms were regarded as separate legal entities.3 Consequently, an author who conveyed the first term rights to his work retained the opportunity to profit from it again during the second term. Traditionally the proceeds received from publication of the original creation con- stituted the author's profits. The development of media communications, however, has greatly expanded the commercial marketability of creative works. 4 Today the value of motion picture rights in a novel or play often exceeds the publication value of the original work. It is not surprising, therefore, that authors frequently license the right to adapt their creation into other media while reserving their "copyright" in the underlying work.