[citation needed] The Act spells out the basic rights of copyright holders, codified the doctrine of "fair use", and for most new copyrights adopted a unitary term based on the date of the author's death rather than the prior scheme of fixed initial and renewal terms.

[2] Before the 1976 Act, the last major revision to statutory copyright law in the United States occurred in 1909.

The Act was designed in part to address intellectual property questions raised by these new forms of communication.

[6] In the years following the United States' adoption of the UCC, Congress commissioned multiple studies on a general revision of copyright law, culminating in a published report in 1961.

[8] The final version was adopted as title 17 of the United States Code on October 19, 1976, when President Gerald Ford signed it into law.

[citation needed] Barbara Ringer called the new law "a balanced compromise that comes down on the authors' and creators' side in almost every instance."

The other intent of the extension was to protect authors' rights "for life plus 50 years—the most common term internationally and the one Twain fought for in his lifetime".

[citation needed] Under section 102 of the Act, copyright protection extends to "original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression, now known or later developed, from which they can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of a machine or device".

The wording of section 102 is significant mainly because it effectuated a major change in the mode of United States copyright protection.

Under the 1976 Act, however, section 102 says that copyright protection extends to original works that are fixed in a tangible medium of expression.

[citation needed] Section 102(b) excludes several categories from copyright protection, partly codifying the concept of idea–expression distinction from Baker v. Selden.

Composition copyright includes lyrics and unless self-published, is usually transferred under the terms of a publishing contract.

While fair use explicitly applies to use of copyrighted work for criticism, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research purposes, the defense is not limited to these areas.

[20] This was intended to allow these people to renegotiate licenses at the later period if the value of the original work was not apparent at the time or creation.

The law requires the creator to issue notice of termination at least 2 years prior to the 35-year date giving the rights holder time to prepare.

that Section 106 was designed with the intent to maximize litigation to the benefit of the legal industry, and gives too much power and protection to the copyright holder while weakening fair use.