Mark Gordon: “The main bill that we are debating today is the Copyright Extension Act. What that does is extend the copyrights for…”

“The main bill that we are debating today is the Copyright Extension Act. What that does is extend the copyrights for music and film in this country to the same level of other countries around the world. If we do not do this, then the United States is going to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue from other countries that should come in to the United States. That is very reasonable, and I think most everybody agrees with that. But then, unfortunately, the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Sensenbrenner) has taken this noncontroversial bill and added a completely unrelated, very controversial amendment. What the amendment offered by the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Sensenbrenner) basically says is that unlike the present and the past, that restaurants and bars should not have to pay for the music or the royalties for the music that they play in their establishments, which amounts to just a little over $1.50 a day.”