Jim Sensenbrenner: “The rule guarantees this body the opportunity to provide balance to the underlying bill, the Copyright Term Extension…”

“The rule guarantees this body the opportunity to provide balance to the underlying bill, the Copyright Term Extension Act, with a modest package of relief for America's small business. The supporters of fairness in music licensing, which is the subject of my amendment, believe it complements the Copyright Term Extension Act quite fittingly. The underlying bill extends the term of copyright for an additional 20 years, thereby permitting copyright owners to continue to commercially exploit works that are beginning to fall into the public domain. My amendment suggests the need to balance this generous expansion of rights, which the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Frost) estimates to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars for copyright owners, with a set of reforms designed to level the playing field for the users of intellectual property. Again, I thank the Committee on Rules for offering this open rule enabling a fair debate and an up-or-down vote on my amendment.”