Copywriting and History

Throughout history copyrighting has changed drastically. Copyright can be defined as the exclusive right to make copies, license, and otherwise exploit a literary, musical, or artistic work, whether the media used is printed, audio, video, etc,. However between 1790 amd 1978 the average copyright term was 32 years, but due to legal changes very little has entered the public domain since 1928. Nonetheless since 1960 copyright has been extended 11 times by Congress. With the emergence of the mass media industry meant institutional protection for much of our culture. However many acts have been created to extend copyright protection such as the Sonny Bonno Copy Term Extension Act of 1998 also known as the Mickey Mouse Protection Act. The Act extended terms to life of the author plus 70 years and for works of corporate authorship to 120 years after creation or 95 years after publication. In addition the Digital Millenium Copy Right Act (DMCRA) made it a crime to circumvent any technical measure that controls access to copyrighted digitial work. It also prohibits creations and distributions of technologies that can bypass copy protection measures and sharing information about them. In a recent article from the New York Times titled, "Stop the Great Firewall of America"  talks about how the Protect IP Act protects American intellectual property. The article talks about recent laws about copyright and how infringement of how creative works through the Internet are justifiable. While people are allowed to express thair freedom of speech through the first amendment of the constitution,  creativity and expression it is not only hard to express, but even harder to protect becuase of restrictions and limitiations. Even though it may not be fair the copyright policy has changed over time because of how media has changed in our society.