Copyright term: The duration of copyright, measured from the date of first publication for works published before 1978, or by the life of the author for unpublished works and works first published after 1977. The current duration of copyright for the work of an individual author is the life of the author, plus 70 years. For corporate works, the current term is 95 years from first publication or 120 years from creation, whichever comes first. The Cornell University Library maintains a handy chart for determining whether a work’s copyright term has expired based on the many complexities in the law.

Why it matters: Copyright term plays an important role in our society and economy, marking the time when copyright’s government monopoly ends and works join the public domain, free for all to use and share. Like all aspects of copyright law, copyright term should strike a balance between encouraging creation and replenishing the public domain. At the time of the founding, copyright had an initial term of 14 years, renewable for 14 more if the author was still alive. Since then, copyright term has exploded to an effective term of more than a century, an indefensible duration that empirical studies show robs the public of access to works with no positive effect on incentives for creation.