WASHINGTON–In a decision that might have implications for the future of MST3K reruns or video releases, the Supreme Court on Jan. 15 upheld lengthier copyrights, protecting the owners of movie copyrights, and seriously damaging the concept of “public domain.”

The 7-2 ruling in the case of Eldred v. Ashcroft, while not unexpected, dashed the hopes of Internet publishers and others who wanted to make old books available online and use other old creations without paying high royalties.

It also put an undetermined number of MST3K episodes effectively out of reach of a TV network that might choose to air them, or video distributors that might want to release those episodes commercially on video or DVD.

The rights to the films featured in most MST3K episodes were purchased for only a few years and, in the majority of cases, those rights have expired, and will have to be renewed before the episodes can be shown on TV or released on video and DVD. In quite many cases the rights owners have set prices prohibitively high; in a few cases they are apparently doing so to suppress the episodes in which their property was ridiculed.

If the Court had overturned the copyright extension, an undetermined number of films featured in MST3K episodes might have gained “public domain” status, markedly lowering the price TV networks or video distributors would have had to pay to make those episodes available.

In their opinions, the justices indicated that they thought the copyright extension, named for the late Rep. Sonny Bono (R-Calif.), was questionable policy, but they concluded that it was neither unconstitutional overreaching by Congress, nor a violation of constitutional free-speech rights, as public domain advocates had claimed in the suit.

“We find that the (extension) is a rational enactment; we are not at liberty to second-guess congressional determinations and policy judgments of this order, however debatable or arguably unwise they may be,” the court said.

Congress has repeatedly lengthened the terms of copyrights over the years. Copyrights lasted only 14 years in 1790. With the challenged 1998 extension, the period is now 70 years after the death of the creator. Works owned by corporations are now protected for 95 years.

All works made in 1964 or later are protected under the legislation, whether their owners formally requested a renewal of their rights or not. All works made between 1923 and 1963 are similarly protected if their owners properly filed for copyright renewal. Works made before 1923 are not protected by the extension, but MST3K does not feature any movies that old.

In addition, some works that were previously considered public domain titles have had their public domain status effectively removed because the creators of music or other elements within the film have exercised their copyrights.

Loyal reader and longtime MST3K fan Lynn Roof checks in with this report from the event with Kevin Murphy at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood.

She writes:

It was very sparsely attended, which was good and bad. The people there really wanted to see the films and meet Kevin, though, so that was nice. I had two books signed, and Kevin very politely let me take a picture with him.

I told him that I was the proud owner of the ocelot phone, and he actually sang the line from the host segment about it! I was stunned that he remembered it after all this time. He was great to everyone in line - two people had actual Tom Servos and he signed them, after praising their quality.

The actual screening was a blast - Kevin chose three very interesting films to show. The first was Heart of the World, which he described as very mind-blowing, which it most certainly was. We were then supposed to see Rabbit of Seville, but apparently the film was stolen! So instead we saw Long Haired Hare (”Leopold! Leopold!”); equally enjoyable.

The best was that Kevin somehow managed to get Forgotten Silver, which is the mockumentary that Peter Jackson and Costas Botes did for New Zealand television, about the lost film pioneer Colin McKenzie. It was brilliant.

Prior to the screening, Kevin talked briefly about how the book came to be, which was he had realized that there were no movie books out there taken from the audience’s point of view. Most movie books are from people in the business, who basically say “Hollywood sucks, and we know it, but there’s nothing we can do.”

Kevin said, “Hey! What about us - the moviegoers?” So he sent a treatment to a friend of his at the publishing company, who ended up saying sure.

The best comment he made was, “What a great job! First, I’m on a puppet show for 10 years; then I get to watch movies for a year! My life is charmed!”

We also found out that his favorite Bugs Bunny line is “Of course you know, this means war!”

Thanks for the report, Lynn!