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

[Richard Stallman]

    Under the terms of the Berne Convention, the extended term was made 
    available to foreign copyright owners on the basis of RECIPROCITY... 

I did not know that, and it is an interesting point.

    it would have 
    been extremely unfair to US creators and copyright owners if they had 
    have been prevented from enjoying the same protections their 
    counterparts in the EU were granted. 

There is no unfairness in denying certain people a power that nobody
should ever have.  The unfairness lies in having granted that power to
other people, who also should not have it.

Your text uses the terms "creators" and "protection" that encourage
the reader to identify with copyright holders rather than with the
public.  Your way of applying the concept of fairness to this
situation is based on such an identification.  It compares the
privileges of US copyright holders with the privileges of EU copyright
holders, while ignoring the question of whether these privileges are
fair to everyone else.  It is like saying constitutional monarchy is
unfair because it means some kings don't get the same power other
kings (absolute monarchs) have.

    The 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act was necessary to 
    address the reciprocity issue.

Shorter copyright was not a problem, so it did not need a solution.