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Page Number: 14

10 

GOLAN v. HOLDER 

Opinion of the Court 

expiration  of  a  full  copyright  term—either  in  the  United 
States or the country of origin—receive no further protec-
tion  under  §514.  Ibid.12    Copyrights  “restored”13  under 
URAA  §514  “subsist  for  the  remainder  of  the  term  of 
copyright that the work would have otherwise been grant-
ed  . . .  if  the  work  never  entered  the  public  domain.”
§104A(a)(1)(B).  Prospectively,  restoration  places  foreign
works  on  an  equal  footing  with  their  U. S.  counterparts; 
assuming  a  foreign  and  domestic  author  died  the  same
day,  their  works  will  enter  the  public  domain  simultane-
ously.  See  §302(a)  (copyrights  generally  expire  70  years 
after  the  author’s  death).  Restored  works,  however,  re-
ceive  no  compensatory  time  for  the  period  of  exclusivity
they  would  have  enjoyed  before  §514’s  enactment,  had 
they  been  protected  at  the  outset  in  the  United States. 
Their total term, therefore, falls short of that available to 
similarly situated U. S. works. 

The  URAA’s  disturbance  of  the  public  domain  hardly 
escaped  Congress’  attention.  Section  514  imposed  no 
liability  for  any  use  of  foreign  works  occurring  before 
restoration.  In addition, anyone remained free to copy and
use  restored  works  for  one  year  following  §514’s  enact-
ment.  See  17  U. S. C.  §104A(h)(2)(A).    Concerns  about 
§514’s  compatibility  with  the  Fifth  Amendment’s  Takings 

—————— 

12 Title 17 U. S. C. §104A(h)(6)(B) defines a “restored work” to exclude 
“an  original  work  of  authorship”  that  is  “in  the  public  domain  in  its
source  country  through  expiration  of  [its]  term  of  protection.”    This 
provision  tracks  Berne’s  denial  of  protection  for  any  work  that  has 
“fallen  into  the  public  domain  in  the  country  of  origin  through  the
expiry of the term of protection.”  Art. 18(1), 828 U. N. T. S., at 251. 

13 Restoration  is  a  misnomer  insofar  as  it  implies  that  all  works 
protected  under  §104A  previously  enjoyed  protection.    Each  work  in 
the  public  domain  because  of  lack  of  national  eligibility  or  subject-
matter  protection,  and  many  that  failed  to  comply  with  formalities,
never  enjoyed  U. S.  copyright  protection.    See,  e.g.,  3  Nimmer 
§9A.04[A][1][b][iii], at 9A–26, and n. 29.4.