Information about Perpetual Copyright

Perpetual copyright refers to a copyright which does not expire. In general, copyright on all works not having special legislation in their favour expires after a certain number years, usually dependent on the author's date of death.

Perpetual copyright around the world

"Common law" copyright

Common law once had a doctrine of copyright where unpublished works were restricted by their authors indefinitely. This has been repudiated in the United States and Britain, where the courts have ruled that copyright is a purely legislative state.

Portugal

Portugal amended the Copyright Act in 1927, to from that 50 years modified Copyright term to "perpetual". However, this stipulation is withdrawn in 1966.

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, a small number of works are subject to a copyright-like perpetual licensing regime. The regime is governed by letters patent issued under the royal prerogative. It is a common misconception that these works are perpetually under copyright. The works covered include those particularly associated with the Church of England, and by extension the British crown, including the Book of Common Prayer and the King James Version of the Bible. Only certain organisations are licensed to reproduce these works in the UK. Since these are not copyright restrictions, they are not recognized outside the UK, even under the separate royal prerogatives of other Commonwealth realms.

J. M. Barrie's play Peter Pan has a special law ensuring royalties will be paid in perpetuity to Great Ormond Street Hospital. However, this is not a perpetual copyright because the hospital does not retain creative control over the work; thus it is also unrecognized outside the UK, though as of 2007 certain elements of Peter Pan remain subject to ordinary copyright restrictions in the European Union (including the UK) and the United States, among other countries.

United States

In the United States, perpetual copyright is prohibited by the US Constitution, which provides that copyright must be for a limited term. However, it does not specify how long that term can be, and it has successively been extended by Congress. Some have argued that this recurring extension of the copyright term has created perpetual copyright de facto, but this argument has been rejected by the US Supreme Court in Eldred v. Ashcroft, which held that the term of copyright may be extended by Congress, so long as it is still a limited term.

Singapore

Pursuant to Section 197 of the Copyright Act, unpublished governmental literary, dramatic and musical works are under perpetual copyright, but once published, they are copyrighted for 70 years since their publications as Singapore does not grant perpetual copyright to published works.