Copyright Office Issues Priorities for Coming Two Years

Author(s): 
Jeffrey H. Kaufman
PDF(s): 
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Copyright Office Priorities 2011-13 (435 KB)
Practice Area(s): 
Copyright

The Register of Copyrights of the U.S. Copyright Office has issued a list of priorities for the next two years regarding copyright policy and administrative practice.  The paper, Priorities and Special Projects of the United States Copyright Office is here.

These include:

A.  Electronic Registration - the current Register credits Marybeth Peters (who recently joined Oblon, Spivak) for the multi-year project to digitize the records of the U.S. Copyright Office, which began in 2007.

B.  In the area of policy:

  • Small Claims Solutions for Copyright Owners.  The Copyright Office anticipates publishing a study in October 2013 on this topic, with public comments due on January 16, 2012
  • Legal Treatment of Pre-1972 Sound Recordings
  • Mass Book Digitization.  The Office is analyzing the issues relating to the Google Book Search litigation and plans to publish its findings later this month.

C.  On the legislative front:

  • Rogue Websites
  • Illegal Streaming
  • Public Performance in Sound Recordings
  • Orphan Works
  • Copyright Exceptions for Libraries
  • Market Based Licensing for Cable and Satellite Retransmission

D.  Trade and Foreign Relations:

  • WIPO
  • Trans-Pacific Partnership and other Trade Priorities

There is also a section addressing the Administrative Law Practice and Special Projects. 

In Special Projects, the Register indicated that the Office is now working on a long-overdue revision to the Compendium of Copyright Office Practices, last updated in 1998. The Office anticipates issuing the revised Compendium in October 2013.