[Upd-discuss] Question regarding European Copyright law and U.S. law

[Sigmascape1@cs.com]

Hi,

I was doing some research on copyright law in the U.S., and specifically, attempting to understand certain aspects of the law. While doing this, I ran into a lot of information regarding the 1998 Copyright Extension Act (The notorious Sonny Bono act). One issue kept coming up in my research... the extension was necessary to put us (the U.S.) in line with Europe's copyright laws. Can someone explain what this means? In what way(s) did it put us in line? Was it simply the length of the extension? Generally speaking, what are the differences between Europe's take on copyright laws vs. the U.S.?

I was under the impression that our fair use stipulations were the big difference.

Thanks,

MLF

www.sigmascape.com