Sonny Bono: “I rise to extend my deep appreciation to my colleagues, including the gentleman from Florida, for honoring Sonny with…”

“I rise to extend my deep appreciation to my colleagues, including the gentleman from Florida, for honoring Sonny with the legislation before us today. I support this bill and ask my colleagues to do the same. Copyright term extension is a very fitting memorial for Sonny. This is not only because of his experience as a pioneer in the music and television industries. The most important reason for me was that he was a legislator who understood the delicate balance of the constitutional interests at stake. Last year he sponsored the term extension bill, H.R. 1621, in conjunction with Sen. Hatch. He was active on intellectual property issues because he truly understood the goals of Framers of the Constitution: that by maximizing the incentives for original creation, we help expand the public store-house of art, films music, books and now also, software. It is said that 'it all starts with a song,' and these works have defined our culture to audiences world-wide. Actually, Sonny wanted the term of copyright protection to last forever. I am informed by staff that such a change would violate the Constitution. I invite all of you to work with me to strengthen our copyright laws in all of the ways available to us.”