House Judiciary Plans Comprehensive Hearings to Review U.S. Copyright Law, Goodlatte Says
The House Judiciary Committee plans a “comprehensive series of hearings” to determine whether U.S. copyright laws are working in the digital age, said Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., at an event Wednesday. Goodlatte told us he didn’t have specifics on the content of the hearings, but the committee will seek advice from all interested parties and then “we will be very aggressive about it.” He believes “a wide review of our nation’s copyright laws and enforcement mechanisms is timely,” and expects a flood of input from a variety of perspectives, Goodlatte said at a Copyright Office event celebrating World Intellectual Property Day.
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Goodlatte’s announcement follows a recent push for the overhaul of copyright law from U.S. Register of Copyrights Maria Pallante, who told Congress in March she would like to see the “next great copyright act” (CD March 21 p8). She called the initiative “exciting and forward thinking,” at the event (http://1.usa.gov/11kR33b). The Senate Judiciary committee hasn’t scheduled any hearings on the subject, but will review the results of the House hearings, a committee spokeswoman said.
The last major copyright reform effort took nearly two decades of negotiations, Pallante said before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property last month. So it may be a while before there’s any proposed legislation, said Brandon Butler, Association of Research Libraries director-public policy initiatives, in an interview. “If they're thinking about that kind of overhaul, then this is like the beginning of the beginning of the beginning,” he said. Goodlatte has a relatively long view of copyright reform, so the announcement doesn’t likely mean the law will change anytime soon, Butler said. Pallante and Goodlatte are reacting to a growing consensus that the legislation is outdated, and “just sort of laying groundwork for thinking about all kinds of potential changes,” said Butler.
Goodlatte listed several challenges the copyright system faces, including concerns about statutory license, damage mechanisms and the difficulty judges face in applying some copyright provisions to modern cases. “The Internet has enabled copyright owners to make available their works to consumers around the world, but has also enabled others to do so without any compensation for copyright owners,” he said. “Efforts to digitize our history so that all have access to it face questions about copyright ownership by those who are hard, if not impossible, to locate."
Teresa Rea, acting director of the Patent and Trademark Office, and James Pooley, deputy director general of innovation and technology at the World Intellectual Property Organization, praised digital innovation at the event. World IP Day, on April 26, commemorates WIPO’s founding and aims to foster discussion of intellectual property and its role in encouraging innovation.