In other words, regardless of the Statute, there existed a perpetual copyright under the common law.
Now a perpetual copyright would be quite another matter.
Let her strike for a perpetual copyright on that book.
A woman desperately tries to convince a powerful senator to oppose perpetual copyright- because the fate of humanity is at stake.
If we can ever get this thing through Congress, we can try making copyright perpetual, some day.
I said there was property in ideas before Queen Anne's time; they had perpetual copyright.
Usually, special legislation is required, granting a perpetual copyright to a specific work.
Calls for perpetual copyright have been widely criticized.
Nevertheless calls for perpetual copyright continued in Britain and France until the mid-19th Century.
State and common law have granted perpetual copyright in certain special cases not covered by federal copyright law.