tion retroactively increased by 20 years. This essen-
tially froze the date for when works covered by the
old copyright rules would enter the public domain
where individuals could use these works free of
charge and without having to get permission. For ex-
ample, under the CTEA, works published in 1923 or
afterward that were still copyrighted in 1998 would
not enter the public domain until 2019 or afterward
unless the owner of the copyright released them into
the public domain prior to that date or if the copy-
right was extended again.
The CTEA was also known as the Sonny Bono
Copyright Term Extension Act, named in memory
of the late congressman Sonny Bono, the male half
of the 1960’s and 1970’s performing duo Sonny and
Cher who died in a 1998 skiing accident nine
months before the act became law. The CTEA was
also pejoratively known as the “Mickey Mouse Pro-
tection Act” because of Disney’s successful lobbying
efforts to get Congress to extend the copyrights of its
profitable Disney characters whose copyrights were
due to expire.
Supporters of the CTEA believed that extending
copyright protection would help the United States
by providing more protection to U.S. artists and au-
thors for their works in foreign countries. Oppo-
nents of the CTEA, however, argued that extending
copyright for an additional twenty years was the be-
ginning of a slippery slope toward a perpetual copy-
right term that violated the spirit of the “for limited
times” language of the U.S. Constitution that cre-
ated copyright.
Impact With everything from illegal music down-
loading sites to the online pirating of commercial
motion pictures, the Internet provided numerous
challenges in regard to copyright law. Many factors,
including its widespread use and relative ease of ac-
cess, made the Internet more difficult to police.
However, in spite of these difficulties, lawmakers
and copyright holders during the 1990’s strove to
make sure that copyright was protected in cyber-
space through the passage of two 1998 laws, the
Copyright Term Extension Act and the Digital Mil-
lennium Copyright Act.
Further Reading
Litman, Jessica.Digital Copyright: Protecting Intellectual
Property on the Internet. Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus
Books, 2001. Litman details the history of the lob-
bying that led to the Digital Millennium Copy-
right Act and addresses imminent problems to be
expected from efforts to limit free access to infor-
mation on the Internet in favor of the companies
that hold the copyright.
Merges, Robert P., Peter S. Mennell, and Mark A.
Lemley.Intellectual Property in the New Technological
Age. 3d ed. New York: Aspen, 2003. This textbook
focuses on the multiple aspects of U.S. intellec-
tual property law in the digital age.
Tao, Hong.Facing the Internet: Balancing the Interests
Between Copyright Owners and the Public. Saar-
brücken, Germany: VDM Verlag Dr. Mueller,- Tao examines the implementation of the
1996 WIPO copyright treaties in different coun-
tries, including the United States.
Eddith A. Dashiell
See also Bono, Sonny; Computers; Internet; Pub-
lishing; World Wide Web. Country music
Definition Southern- and Western-inspired music
genre that incorporates pop influences
Though traditional countr y music was known for its south-
ern drawls, twangy guitars, and performances in honky-
tonk clubs, the 1990’s ushered in an entirely new era for the
genre. Aside from adapting commercial pop tendencies, the
style crossed over well beyond its core audience and ex-
panded past its Nashville recording base to become an inter-
national phenomenon.
The trend of country music’s crossover appeal in the
1990’s actually dates back to the 1970’s, when pop in-
fluences infiltrated the recordings of Glen Campbell,
Kenny Rogers, Anne Murray, and John Denver.
Those trends continued to surge in the 1980’s thanks
to the commercial appeal of Dolly Parton and Willie
Nelson, and later, Reba McEntire and Garth Brooks.
In all of these instances, country music covered a
broader musical base relatable to widespread audi-
ences, not just its core fan base throughout the south-
ern and western regions of the United States. By the
turn of the decade into the 1990’s, the style’s earliest
roots were barely recognizable as Brooks in particular
broke the mold on all levels, interjecting rock and
pop into his country pedigree, while staging sold-out
stadium shows.The Nineties in America Country music 225