对作者有生之年加死后50年的版权保护期限加以延长既不会给作者的人格权提供更多的保护，也不会给予作者更多的激励。因此，中国没有必要对欧美亦步亦趋，延长现行《
著作权法》中所规定的版权保护期限。
【注释】为行文方便，本文不严格区分“版权”和“著作权”这两个术语。如无特别说明，本文中的“版权”也包含“著作权”的含义。
A Bill for the Encouragement of Learning and for securing the property of Copies of Books to the rightful Owners thereof , known as Statute of Anne of 1710.
John Feather, Publishing, Piracy and Politics: An Historical Study of Copyright in Britain 11-14 (1994), at 58-59. 也有人指出，《安娜法典》制定之初并没有对保护期限有所限制，保护期限是在对该法典修订时增加的。See Mark Rose, Authors and Owners: The Invention of Copyright 42-43 (1993).
例如葡萄牙在1966年之前给予作者永远的版权保护。Adolf Dietz, Das Urheberrecth in Spanien und Portugal 1990, S. 163.
《伯尔尼保护文学和艺术作品公约》要求成员国给予版权保护作品以作者有生之年及其死后50年的保护（见《伯尔尼公约》第7条第1款）。这一保护期限也有例外。成员国可以给予匿名作品、电影作品、摄影作品和作为艺术作品保护的实用艺术作品较短的保护期限（见《伯尔尼公约》第7条第2、3、4款）。
见《
著作权法》第
21条。
Canada Sub-Committee on the Revision of Copyright, A Charter of Rights
for Creators (Ottowa: Standing Committee on Communications and Culture, 1985).
See Mark Rose, Copyright and Its Metaphors, 50 UCLA L Rev 1, 7-8 (2002); Dane S. Ciolino and Erin A. Donelon, Questioning Strict Liability in Copyright, 54 Rutgers L Rev 351, 366 (2002).
John Locke, Two Treaties of Government, para. 28 (Peter Lasslet ed., Cambridge 1970).
See eg., Edward W. Ploman & L. Clark Hamilton, Copyright: Intellectual property in the information age. London 1980; David Saunders, Authorship and copyright, London 1992; Jane C. Ginsburg, Creation and Commercial Value: Copyright Protection of Works of Information, Colum. L. Rev., 90(7), 1865-1938, Paul Goldstein , Copyright, Law and Contemporary Problems, Vol. 55, No.2 (1992), 79-91.
例如，使用Word文档来处理文件的人越多，就意味着每一个Word文档使用者能够通过其进行交流的人越多，从而每个使用中的Word文档的价值得到提升。
即使是有形财产也不完全是个人的劳动成果，而是个人劳动与社会资源的结合。因此，洛克对财产权的取得提出了一个著名而模糊的附加条件，即只有当该取得人仍然给其他人在公共领域留下了足够多的和好的东西，该财产权的取得才合法。John Locke, Two Treaties of Government, para. 27 (Peter Lasslet ed., Cambridge 1970).
See Harold Demsetz, Information and Efficiency: Another Viewpoint, Journal of Law and Economics, 12 (1969): 1
See Library of Congress, Copyright Office, Orphan Works, Federal Register Vol. 70, No. 16, p. 3739-3743.
Macaulay Thomas Speech Before the House of Commons (Feb. 5, 1841), in 8 The Works of Lord Macaulay (Lady Trevelyan ed., 1906), at 200.
Haimo Schack, Urheber- und Urhebervertragsrecht, Rn. 468, 2. Aufl., Tübingen 2001.
Art. 1 (1) of the Council Directive 93/98/EEC of 29 October 1993 harmonizing the term of protection of copyright and certain related rights (hereinafter: Directive 93/98/EEC).
Sec. 102 (b) of the Copyright Term Extension Act (hereinafter: CTEA), also known as Sony Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, Pub. L. No. 105-298, 112 Stat. 2827 (1998).
有关该法的立法背景材料以及各方评论请参看：http://homepages.law.asu.edu/%7Edkarjala/OpposingCopyrightExtension/default.htm (last visited on Sep. 25, 2005).
Eldred v. Ashcroft, 123 S. Ct. 769, 790 (2003).
SeeLawrence D. Graham & Richard O. Zerbe, Jr., Economically Efficient Treatment of Computer Software: Reverse Engineering, Protection and Disclosure, 22 Rutgers Computer & Tech. L.J. 61 (1996); Robert A. Kreiss, Accessibility and Commercialization in Copyright Theory, 43 UCLA L. Rev. 1 (1995); Wendy J. Gordon, An Inquiry Into the Merits of Copyright: The Challenges of Consistency, Consent, and Encouragement Theory, 41 Stan. L. Rev. 1345 (1989).
William M. Landes & Richard A. Posner, An Economic Analysis of Copyright Law, 18 J. Legal Stud. 325 (1989).
See, e.g., Harper & Row Publishers, Inc. v. Nation Enters., 471 U.S. 539, 558 (1985). Sony Corp. Of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc., 464 U.S. 417, 431 (1984); Twentieth Century Music Corp. v. Aiken, 422 U.S. 151, 156 (1975).
Jeremy Bentham, A Manual of Political Economy, 3 The Works of Jeremy Bentham 71 (Bowring ed., 1932).
Edward C. Walterscheid, Defining the patent and copyright term: term limits and the intellectual property clause, 7 J. Intell. Prop. L. 315, 346.
Copyright Act of 1976.
See United States Copyright Office, Circular 15a, 1.
Staniforth Ricketson, The Copyright Term, International Review of Industrial Property and Copyright Law 23, 6:753-785 (1992).
据估计，在美国出版的音像制品中，大约60%已经绝版。See Ed Christman, Record-Rama Revolves Around Inventory, Billboard, Oct. 2, 1993, at 72; 根据统计，美国1901-1960年间出版的图书在2001年的流通情况是：1901-10年出版的13,470本书中只有180本（占1.3%）；1911-20年出版的8,422本书中有307本（占3.6%），1921-30年出版的10,027本书中有174本（占1.7%）；1931-40年出版的11,328本书中还有224本（占1.9%）；1941-50年出版的11,022本书中还有431本（3.9%）在2001年仍被继续印刷。See Deirdre K. Mulligan & Jason M. Schultz, Neglecting the National Memory, 4 J. App. Prac. & Process 451, 472 (2002), at 462 n.33.
另一个原因是为了与欧盟版权保护期指令取得一致。
Immanul Kant, Critique of Practical Reason and Other Works on the Theory of Ethics (trans. Thomas Kingmill Abbott, Longman and Green and Co 1879).
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Grundlinien der Philosophie des Recht, Berlin, 1956, Rn. 40.
Netanel, Neil W. (1993), Copyright Alienability Restrictions and the Enhancement of Author
Autonomy: A Normative Evaluation, 24 Rutgers Law Journal, 347-442; Margaret J. Radin, Property and Personhood, 34 Stand. L. Rev. (1982), 957-1015
William Fisher, Theories of Intellectual Property, in New Essays in the Legal and Political Theory of Property (Cambridge 2001).
Immanuel Kant, Von der Unrechtmäßigkeit des Büchernachdrucks, unter: http://bfp.sp.unipi.it/classici/kantubn_de.html (last visited on Sep. 25, 2005).
Article 6bis of the Berne Convention.
德国有关的判例有：OLG Koblenz GRUR Int 1968, 164, 165 – Liebeshändel in Chioggia; LG Berlin GRUR 1990, 270 – Satellitenfoto；奥地利也有类似的判例，如OGH WBI 1998, 181, 182 – Buchhaltungsprogramm.
Vgl. Schricker/Loewenheim, § 2 UrhG Rn 12; a.A. Noll, Urheberrechtliche Aspekte der maschinellen Übersetzung, öBl 1993, 145-150.
Jane Radin, Reinterpreting Property (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993); Jeremy Waldron, The Right to Private Property (Oxford: Clarendon, 1988).
Haimo Schack, Rn. 467, 468.
Christian Grün, Die zeitliche Schranke des Urheberrechts. Eine historische und dogmatische Erklärung, in: Schriften zum Medienrecht, hrsg. von Manfred Rehbinder und Wolfgang Larese, S. 122, Bern 1979.
Preamble 5 of Directive 93/98/EEC.
Julian Morris, Rosalind Mowatt, W. Duncan Reekie, Richard Tren, Ideal Matter: Globalisation and the Intellectual Property Debate, Centre for the New Europe 2002.
See Art. 7 (1) of Directive 96/9/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 1996 on the legal protection of databases (hereinafter: Directive 96/9/EC).
Joseph A. Lavigne, For Limited Times? Making Rich Kids Richer Via the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1996, 73 University of Detroit Mercy Law Review, No. 2, Winter 1996, 311-360.
Marci A. Hamilton, Copyright Duration Extension and the Dark Heart of Copyright, Volume 14, No. 3, Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal,657 (1996).
See Dennis S. Karjala, Comment of U.S. Copyright Law Professors on the Copyright Office Term of Protection Study, 16 Eur. Intell. Prop. Rev. 531 (1994).
Mickey Mouse Protection Act.
见William Patry 在美国版权保护期限延长法案听证会上所作的发言。Hearings on H.R. 989 Before the Senate Judiciary Comm., 104th Cong, 1st Sess. (1995).
