U.S. Copyright Office Proposes Changes
The United States Copyright Office recently released priorities and special projects for the coming months, and some of which could, according to one media writer, “bring path-breaking changes to both intellectual property law as well as the entertainment and media industries.”
The seventeen priorities and ten special projects reflect the commitment of the Office to address current complexities in the copyright system and to prepare for future challenges. Included among them are:
registration options for websites and other forms of digital authorship
Registration of content that is disseminated online, e.g., on websites and blogs, presents certain challenges to the copyright registration system. When a website contains a great number of contributions from many authors, and changes daily or even several times a day, what is the appropriate unit of registration? How can an accurate, informative record of copyright ownership be created? What is the appropriate deposit? Should a group registration scheme be implemented that would permit a single registration to cover content disseminated over a period of many days or weeks?
Congress is exploring ways to provide more effective legal tools to address online infringement of U.S. books, films, music, and software, including infringement that originates overseas. So-called rogue websites are a particularly egregious problem. Potential legislative solutions would make it possible for the United States Attorney General (and possibly copyright owners) to obtain various court orders including: injunctions ordering operators of the sites to cease their infringing activity; orders to credit card companies and Internet advertising agencies to cease providing services to the websites; and orders requiring domain name server operators and search engines to cease directing end users to websites.
The Copyright Office has undertaken a preliminary analysis identifying the issues related to mass book digitization—developments the Office analyzed in connection with the U.S. Statemets of Interest filed in the Google Book Search litigation, as well as in testimony on the subject. The analysis addresses the current landscape and marketplace; possible methods to facilitate digitization projects, including voluntary, extended, and statutory
collective licensing.
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