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<b><i>Looking Forward, Looking Back:</b></i> Supreme Court's <i>Rear Window</i> Ruling 20 Years Later

By Stan Soocher

The Copyright Act of 1976 provided for a single copyright term. This is today measured ' for works created, or published, on or after Jan. 1, 1978 ' from the death of the author, or last living co-author, plus 70 years. For pre-Jan. 1, 1978 works, however, the 1909 Act set forth two copyright terms: an initial 28-year term followed by a 28-year renewal term. Congress has since extended the renewal term to a total of 67-years. The extent of assigned rights under the renewal term has become increasingly important as, for example, the film and television industries rely more heavily on remakes of earlier, popular movie and TV properties to hopefully attract larger audiences.

2010 is the 20th anniversary of a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that dealt with the renewal-rights dilemma. The case centered on whether actor James Stewart and director Alfred Hitchcock could continue to exploit their classic-thriller movie Rear Window, which was based on the short story “It Had to Be Murder” by Cornell Woolrich. Though relatively unknown today, the prolific Woolrich was an originator of the noir school of mystery writing. Woolrich's novels and short stories formed the basis of more than two-dozen movies and 100 TV programs. “It Had to Be Murder” was first published in 1942, in Dime Detective magazine. In 1945, for $9,250, Woolrich assigned the rights to this and five other of his stories to a movie production company from which Stewart and Hitchcock's production outfit, Patron Inc., later bought the “Murder” movie rights for $10,000. The resulting film, Rear Window, starring Stewart and actress Grace Kelly, was released by Paramount Pictures in 1954.

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