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80–067 PDF 2013

THE REGISTER’S CALL FOR UPDATES TO 

U.S. COPYRIGHT LAW 

HEARING 

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON 

COURTS, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, 

AND THE INTERNET 

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS 

FIRST SESSION 

MARCH 20, 2013 

Serial No. 113–20 

Printed for the use of the Committee on the Judiciary 

( 

Available via the World Wide Web: http://judiciary.house.gov 
(II) 

COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY 

BOB GOODLATTE, Virginia, Chairman 

F. JAMES SENSENBRENNER, JR., 

Wisconsin 

HOWARD COBLE, North Carolina 

LAMAR SMITH, Texas 

STEVE CHABOT, Ohio 

SPENCER BACHUS, Alabama 

DARRELL E. ISSA, California 

J. RANDY FORBES, Virginia 

STEVE KING, Iowa 

TRENT FRANKS, Arizona 

LOUIE GOHMERT, Texas 

JIM JORDAN, Ohio 

TED POE, Texas 

JASON CHAFFETZ, Utah 

TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania 

TREY GOWDY, South Carolina 

MARK AMODEI, Nevada 

RAU ́ L LABRADOR, Idaho 

BLAKE FARENTHOLD, Texas 

GEORGE HOLDING, North Carolina 

DOUG COLLINS, Georgia 

RON DeSANTIS, Florida 

KEITH ROTHFUS, Pennsylvania 

JOHN CONYERS, JR., Michigan 

JERROLD NADLER, New York 

ROBERT C. ‘‘BOBBY’’ SCOTT, Virginia 

MELVIN L. WATT, North Carolina 

ZOE LOFGREN, California 

SHEILA JACKSON LEE, Texas 

STEVE COHEN, Tennessee 

HENRY C. ‘‘HANK’’ JOHNSON, JR., 

Georgia 

PEDRO R. PIERLUISI, Puerto Rico 

JUDY CHU, California 

TED DEUTCH, Florida 

LUIS V. GUTIERREZ, Illinois 

KAREN BASS, California 

CEDRIC RICHMOND, Louisiana 

SUZAN DelBENE, Washington 

JOE GARCIA, Florida 

HAKEEM JEFFRIES, New York 

SHELLEY HUSBAND, Chief of Staff & General Counsel 

PERRY APELBAUM, Minority Staff Director & Chief Counsel 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON COURTS, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, AND THE INTERNET

HOWARD COBLE, North Carolina, Chairman 

TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania, Vice-Chairman 

F. JAMES SENSENBRENNER, JR., 

Wisconsin 

LAMAR SMITH, Texas 

STEVE CHABOT, Ohio 

DARRELL E. ISSA, California 

TED POE, Texas 

JASON CHAFFETZ, Utah 

MARK AMODEI, Nevada 

BLAKE FARENTHOLD, Texas 

GEORGE HOLDING, North Carolina 

DOUG COLLINS, Georgia 

RON DeSANTIS, Florida 

KEITH ROTHFUS, Pennsylvania 

MELVIN L. WATT, North Carolina 

JOHN CONYERS, JR., Michigan 

HENRY C. ‘‘HANK’’ JOHNSON, JR., 

Georgia 

JUDY CHU, California 

TED DEUTCH, Florida 

KAREN BASS, California 

CEDRIC RICHMOND, Louisiana 

SUZAN DelBENE, Washington 

HAKEEM JEFFRIES, New York 

JERROLD NADLER, New York 

ZOE LOFGREN, California 

SHEILA JACKSON LEE, Texas 

JOE KEELEY, Chief Counsel 

STEPHANIE MOORE, Minority Counsel 
(III) 

C O N T E N T S 

MARCH 20, 2013 

Page 

OPENING STATEMENTS 

The Honorable Howard Coble, a Representative in Congress from the State 

of North Carolina, and Chairman, Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual 

Property, and the Internet .................................................................................. 1 

The Honorable Melvin L. Watt, a Representative in Congress from the State 

of North Carolina, and Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet .......................................................................... 2 

WITNESS 

The Honorable Maria A. Pallante, Register of Copyrights, United States 

Copyright Office 

Oral Testimony ..................................................................................................... 4 

Prepared Statement ............................................................................................. 6 

LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING 

Prepared Statement of the Honorable Bob Goodlatte, a Representative in 

Congress from the State of Virginia, and Chairman, Committee on the 

Judiciary ............................................................................................................... 44 

APPENDIX 

MATERIAL SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING RECORD

Prepared Statement of the Honorable Howard Coble, a Representative in 

Congress from the State of North Carolina, and Chairman, Subcommittee 

on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet ........................................... 65 

Prepared Statement of the Honorable Melvin L. Watt, a Representative in 

Congress from the State of North Carolina, and Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet ......................... 68 

Response to Questions for the Record from the Honorable Maria A. Pallante, 

Register of Copyrights, United States Copyright Office ................................... 74 

(1) 

THE REGISTER’S CALL FOR UPDATES TO 

U.S. COPYRIGHT LAW 

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 20, 2013 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

SUBCOMMITTEE ON COURTS, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, AND THE INTERNET

COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY

Washington, DC. 

The Subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 3:30 p.m., in room 

2141, Rayburn House Office Building, the Honorable Howard Coble 

(Chairman of the Subcommittee) presiding. 

Present: Representatives Coble, Goodlatte, Marino, Smith, 

Chabot, Poe, Chaffetz, Holding, Collins, DeSantis, Rothfus, Watt, 

Conyers, Johnson, Chu, Deutch, Bass, DelBene, Jeffries, Lofgren, 

and Jackson Lee. 

Staff Present: (Majority) Joe Keeley, Chief Counsel; Olivia Lee, 

Clerk; and (Minority) Stephanie Moore, Minority Counsel. 

Mr. COBLE. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. The Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet will 

come to order. 

Without objection, the Chair is authorized to declare recesses of 

the Committee at any time. We welcome all of our witnesses today. 

The bad news is we are going to have two different series of 

votes imminently. One will start in about 15 or 20 minutes. But 

I would like to get the opening statements out of the way early if 

we could, and I will start with mine. 

Today’s oversight hearing on the United States Register of Copyrights’ call for updates to our copyright law will come to order. Oftentimes friends back home tell me that intellectual property induces sleep, when they read about it, they fall asleep. It is only for 

rich people they say. 

Well, both are wrong. The falling asleep might be right, because 

sometimes the law does get a little heavy. But we are here for a 

very important hearing today, and I appreciate you all being here. 

It is my pleasure to welcome Madam Register Pallante. Throughout my career and my tenure in Congress on this Subcommittee, 

the Copyright Office has served as a wellspring of sound advice and 

counsel. Ironically, most of that advice and counsel came from Ms. 

Pallante before she ascended to her current position. 

Approximately 2 weeks ago, Register Pallante participated in the 

Horace S. Manges Lecture at the Columbia School of Law in New 
2 

York. Her remarks, which are posted on the Committee’s website, 

cover a wide range of issues challenging our copyright laws, as she 

proposes what could be a blueprint for the next generation of our 

next Copyright Act. Her prepared testimony today also aptly notes 

that Congress must ultimately consider what does and does not belong under a copyright owner’s control in this digital age. 

Much of my career has been dedicated to developing our intellectual property laws. Issues relating to the digital platform have 

been the most difficult to resolve. And I welcome the Register’s 

thoughts on how we can best address today’s conflicts so that our 

copyright laws will benefit generations to come. 

I have no doubt that the digital revolution has taken hold, and 

in order to continue to foster creativity and growth, our intellectual 

property laws should facilitate an environment for creativity and 

innovation. Register Pallante, what you suggest will take some 

time, and there is no guarantee this Subcommittee will agree to 

undertake such a big step. But if we do, I assure you that you will 

be a key part of the effort. 

One aspect of your testimony that I found most interesting are 

your thoughts on the role of authors and their interests with respect to the public’s interests. I hope you have the opportunity 

today to explain how these two interests can be mutually inclusive 

in the digital age. I also hope you have an opportunity to clarify 

to whom you are referring when you mention authors and the public, and how other copyright stakeholders fit into this puzzle. These 

clarifications are critical if we truly intend to move this discussion 

forward. 

Register Pallante, thank you again for your work to enhance intellectual property rights in America. I appreciate your effort to 

participate in today’s hearing, and look forward to your testimony, 

and reserve the balance of my time. And I am now pleased to recognize the distinguished gentleman from North Carolina, the 

Ranking Member of this Subcommittee, Mr. Mel Watt. 

Mr. WATT. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

And thank you for convening this hearing. 

I want to begin by thanking our witness, Maria Pallante, for her 

service to date. She and her staff have been invaluable resources 

to the Subcommittee and are to be commended for their expertise, 

professionalism, and impartiality. 

The world is changing. Remarkable developments in technology 

and the Internet have enabled society to change at an unprecedented pace. But these efficiencies have called into question the effectiveness of our laws, both in protecting cherished values and in 

promoting continued innovation. 

As a Nation, we are reevaluating laws in a number of areas. For 

example, we are reevaluating laws to ensure that top, current, and 

former U.S. officials, including the Vice President, First Lady, Secretary Clinton, and, most recently, former President George W. 

Bush, do not have their private information obtained and disseminated without authorization. 

We are reevaluating laws to prevent foreign hackers from infiltrating our news rooms, and to balance law enforcement needs with 

the sanctity of stored communications, and to determine whether 

computer fraud laws are unacceptably vague. 
3 

And we are reevaluating to shore up the security of our critical 

infrastructure against cyber attacks. 

Each of these reevaluations is compelled by innovations which, 

when misused, can lead to unintended, even devastating consequences. Copyright law and policy is no different. The digital era 

has introduced some unique challenges for copyright owners and 

users, and exacerbated some preexisting ones. 

Even the rulemaking process, designed to balance the intersecting interests of copyright law with technological advances and 

public access, have come under attack. Most recently, Chairman 

Goodlatte and Ranking Member Conyers introduced the Unlocking 

Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act, which I was 

pleased to co-sponsor. In the aftermath, calls for an upheaval of 

copyright law began appearing in the press and in the blogosphere. 

Although those calls for widespread copyright reform coincided 

with the call to action by the Register of Copyright, they should not 

be driving us to action because I do not believe that policies should 

be dictated by polls and petitions. 

Although valuable and important to help create a climate for political action, polls and petitions should not determine the substance of the changes we make but should be considered along with 

a multitude of other factors and voices and accorded appropriate 

weight. 

While I agree with Ms. Pallante’s central premise that it is time 

to deliberatively update our copyright regime to meet the challenges of the 21st century, I also strongly believe that there are 

some things that both Congress and the relevant industries can 

and should do sooner to address some of the imbalances that have 

developed in the digital environment. 

First, I think we must redouble our effort to ensure, whether 

through legislation, public education, or stakeholder negotiations, 

that the core purpose of copyright, which is to promote the public 

interest by ensuring creators have the incentive to create, is reinforced by enabling all artists, whether photographers, musicians, 

composers, performers, lyricists, actors, or other segments of the 

creative community, to be able to forge a livelihood from the new 

distribution channels through which consumers increasingly enjoy 

their creations. Copyright law should not stifle innovation, but it 

must stimulate the creativity upon which innovation depends. 

It is no accident that new modernized platforms and technologies 

seek to exploit artistic work. At root, a Kindle is useless without 

the literary works of authors. The iPod would be worthless, and 

Pandora would not exist without the musical works they deliver. 

And Netflix would not continue to thrive without the catalogue of 

films in its reservoir. In short, consumers crave content, and to 

continue providing quality content, the creative community must 

enjoy the just rewards contemplated by our Constitution. 

Second, I think it is time, and the time is long overdue, for Congress to recognize a performance right in sound recordings. To do 

so requires no further study. To not do so just prolongs this longstanding inequity and keeps us out of pace with the international 

community. 

Similarly, I think we have a sufficient body of evidence on which 

to craft a legislative solution to the orphan works problem. Ad-
4 

dressing this problem will give users comfort that they will not face 

infringement claims from unknown, unidentified rights holders, despite diligent efforts to locate them. 

Mr. Chairman, there may be some other specific areas in which 

Congress can or should take more immediate action because either 

the record is sufficiently complete or the stakes are too high to do 

nothing, or to delay needlessly. But I will stop here so that we can 

hear our Register express her views and recommendations on the 

content and process for the next great Copyright Act. 

And so, with that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back. 

Mr. COBLE. I thank the gentleman. 

Without objection, other Members’ opening statements will be 

made a part of the record. 

We have a very distinguished guest and witness today. 

I will begin by swearing in our witness before introducing her. 

[Witness sworn.] 

Mr. COBLE. Let the record reflect that the witness answered in 

the affirmative. And you may be seated. Most of you know our witness today. 

But for the benefit of the uninformed, I will bring you up to 

speed. Maria Pallante has served as the Register of Copyright since 

June 2011. Prior to her appointment as Register, Ms. Pallante 

served in the Copyright Office in a variety of roles for a total of 

7 years. Ms. Pallante has also worked in a leading position for the 

Guggenheim Museum in New York City, the National Writers 

Union, and the Authors Guild. 

Register Pallante is a 1990 graduate of the George Washington 

University School of Law, and she earned her bachelor’s degree in 

history from the Misericordia University. 

Madam Register, we are delighted to have you with us today. 

And if you could limit your comments to on or about 5 minutes in 

view of our hectic schedule that is forthcoming, we would be appreciative. If you violate the 5-minute rule you won’t be keelhauled, 

but we will be patient with you. So we are glad to have you with 

us. 

TESTIMONY OF THE HONORABLE MARIA A. PALLANTE, REGISTER OF COPYRIGHTS, UNITED STATES COPYRIGHT OFFICE 

Ms. PALLANTE. Thank you so much, Mr. Coble, Ranking Member 

Watt. 

Welcome, to the Members of the Subcommittee. 

And thank you so much for the invitation to appear before you 

today. And on behalf of the staff of the Copyright Office, thank you 

for focusing on copyright. We greatly appreciate it. And although 

we do work with you on many discrete issues, and have for 100 

years, more than 100 years, it is a great privilege today—to be here 

today—to think about the big picture of copyright and how we 

might begin a conversation about a forward-thinking framework for 

the next several decades. At least that is what I would like to talk 

about. 

As the Chairman mentioned, the U.S. Copyright Office administers many important provisions of the law. We also have a statutory role to advise Congress on domestic and international copy-
5 

right issues. We also have a statutory role to work with and assist 

executive branch agencies in their discrete statutory roles, whether 

that be trade or treaty making, for example. 

Congress has before enacted general revisions of the law, with 

varying degrees of pain, and sometimes over many, many years. 

The last time you did that was in 1976. The process started in the 

1950’s. It took over 20 years. It is widely regarded as the most balanced copyright act in the world, lots of compromise, lots of consensus building. If it has a fault, it is that because it took so long, 

it was nearly outdated by the time it was implemented, meaning 

that you were legislating behind the blade of technology, not doing 

anything too dramatic, but certainly bringing the United States up 

to par with the rest of the world. Even those who worked very 

closely and were very invested in the process, like former Register 

of Copyrights Barbara Ringer, when it was all over, said that is a 

good 1950 law. So we may not even be dealing with the 1970’s at 

this point is really my point. We may be going back further in time 

than we realize. 

And then, of course, there was the DMCA, which implemented 

two Internet treaties in the late 1990’s. And that was more comprehensive, but it was not the entire statute. And so we have a mix 

of provisions that were designed to target Internet activity, and we 

are now 15 years later in that process. And I think it is fair to say 

that 15 years in terms of Internet time is a long time. 

So we have these two statutes, so to speak, before us today. And 

my goal is to figure out how to work with all of you, so many of 

whom have come to us and said this is a concern for me, or this 

is a concern for me. And the way we see it from the Copyright Office is that they all belong on the table at the same time because 

so many of them are interrelated. And ultimately, it is not a discussion about profits for one sector or another, but as the Chairman 

noted, it is about the constitutional purpose of copyright, how we 

can make sure we prioritize authors, who, as James Madison said, 

their interests coincide with the interests of the public, how do we 

get back to that kind of equation. Also providing a blueprint for 

new companies, especially in the online world, good faith companies to know what they are allowed to do with content and what 

they are not. 

Finally, I would just say that the public is very confused. Many 

of you have told me that your constituents have no idea what to 

do with copyright, whether they are teachers, private citizens in 

their homes, higher education institutions. And I can tell you that 

we have a public office across the street that takes phone calls all 

day every day, and it is very difficult to advise people as to the 

state of the law when essentially you are relegated to telling them, 

well, in the Ninth Circuit here is the view, and in the Second Circuit, here is the view. And the Supreme Court is looking at this 

issue now, but maybe not opining on the whole picture. 

So I think that there are a lot of people who like to say that 

copyright is broken. What I would say is that good faith people 

really want know what the rules of the road are. And so my office 

is prepared to help you in any way we can. We always have been 

in that role. We take great pride in it. And with that, I am happy 

to answer any questions that you have. 
6 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Pallante follows:] 

Statement of Maria A. Pallante 

Register of Copyrights of the United States 

Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet 

Committee on the Judiciary 

United States House of Representatives 113'h Congress, 1" Session 

March 20, 2013 

"The Register's Call for Updates to U.S. Copyright Law"! 

Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the state of our 

copyright law. My message is simple. The law is showing the strain of its age and requires your 

attention. As many have noted, authors do not have effective protections, good faith businesses 

do not have clear roadmaps, courts do not have sufficient direction, and consumers and other 

private citizens are increasingly frustrated. The issues are numerous, complex, and interrelated, 

and they atTect every part of the copyright ecosystem, including the public at large. For reasons 

that I will explain, Congress should approach the issues comprehensively over the next few years 

as part of a more general revision of the statute. A comprehensive etTort would otTer an occasion 

to step back and consider issues both large and small, as well as whether and how they relate to 

the equities of the statute as a whole. This Subcommittee in particular has an opportunity to do 

what it has done in the past, not merely to update particular provisions of copyright law, but to 

put forth a forward-thinking framework for the benefit of both culture and commerce alike. 

It has been fifteen years since Congress acted expansively in the copyright space. During 

that period, Congress was able to leave a very visible and far-reaching imprint on the 

development of both law and commerce. It enacted the Digital Millennium Copyright Act 

("DMCA"), which created rules of the road for online intermediaries (e.g., Internet service 

providers) and a general prohibition on the circumvention of technological protection measures 

(so-called "TPMs") employed by copyright owners to protect their content. The DMCA also 

created a rulemaking mechanism by which proponents could make the case for temporary 

exemptions to the TPM provisions in order to facilitate fair use or other noninfringing uses (the 

"section 1201 rulemaking"). 

Nonetheless, a major portion of the current copyright statute was enacted in 1976. It took 

over two decades to negotiate, and was drafted to address analog issues and to bring the United 

States into better harmony with international standards, namely the Berne Convention. 

Moreover, although the Act is rightly hailed by many as an accomplishment in balance and 

compromise, its long trajectory defeated any hope that it could be effective into the 21" century. 

1 [or a more extensive discussion of these issues, sC'e Maria A. Pallante, The Next GreUl Cop)Tighi Ad, 37 COLUlvI ~ ~ ~ • _ • _ • •• • " • •• • M •• 
7 

2 

In fact, former Register of Copyrights Barbara Ringer, who had worked closely with Congress 

for much of the 1976 revision process, later called it a "good 1950 copyright law." 

T think it is time for Congress to think about the next great copyright act, which will need 

to be more forward thinking and flexible than before. Because the dissemination of content is so 

pervasive to life in the 21" century, the law also should be less technical and more helpful to 

those who need to navigate it. Certainly some guidance could be given through reb'lliations and 

education. But my point is, if one needs an army of lawyers to understand the basic precepts of 

the law, then it is time for a new law. 

A central equation for Congress to consider is what does and does not belong under a 

copyright owner's control in the digital age. T do not believe that the control of copyright owners 

should be absolute, but it needs to be meaningful. People around the world increasingly are 

accessing content on mobile devices and fewer and fewer of them will need or desire the 

physical copies that were so central to the 19th and 20th century copyright laws. 

Moreover, while philosophical discussions have a place in policy debates, amending the 

law eventually comes down to the negotiation of complex and sometimes arcane provisions of 

the statute, requiring leadership from Congress and assistance from expert agencies like mine 

The list ofissues is long: clarifying the scope of exclusive rights, revising exceptions and 

limitations for libraries and archives, addressing orphan works, accommodating persons who 

have print disabilities, providing guidance to educational institutions, exempting incidental 

copies in appropriate instances, updating enforcement provisions, providing b'llidance on 

statutory damages, reviewing the efficacy of the DMCA, assisting with small copyright claims, 

reforming the music marketplace, updating the framework for cable and satellite transmissions, 

encouraging new licensing regimes, and improving the systems of copyright registration and 

recordation. 

That said, Congress does not need to start from scratch, as it has already laid the 

groundwork for many core issues. For example, Congress already has had more than a decade of 

debate on the public perfonnance right for sound recordings, and has given serious consideration 

to improving the way in which musical works are licensed in the marketplace. These issues are 

ripe for resolution. 

Likewise, Congress has requested a number of studies from the Copyright Office in 

recent years, on a variety of timely topics, including the first sale doctrine, orphan works, library 

exceptions, statutory licensing reform, federalization of pre-72 sound recordings, and mass 

digitization of books. Additionally, we have reports in progress on small copyright claims and 

resale royalties for visual artists. 

Congress al so may need to apply fresh eyes to the next great copyright act to ensure that 

the copyright law remains relevant and functional. This may require some bold adjustments to 

the general framework. You may want to consider alleviating some of the pressure and gridlock 

brought about by the long copyright tenn - for example, by reverting works to the public 

domain after a period of life plus fifty years unless heirs or successors register their interests with 

the Copyright Office. And in compelling circumstances, you may wish to reverse the general 
8 

principle of copyright law that copyright owners should grant prior approval for the reproduction 

and dissemination of their works - for example, by requiring copyright owners to object or "opt 

out" in order to prevent certain uses, whether paid or unpaid, by educational institutions or 

libraries. 

If Congress considers copyright revision, a primary challenge will be keeping the public 

interest at the forefront, including how to define the public interest and who may speak for it. 

Any number of organizations may feel justified in this role, and on many issues there may in fact 

be many voices, but there is no singular party or proxy. Tn revising the law, Congress should 

look to the equities of the statute as a whole, and strive for balance in the overall framework. It 

is both possible and necessary to have a copyright law that combines safeguards for free 

expression, guarantees of due process, mechanisms for access, and respect for intellectual 

property 

To this end, I would like to state something that I hope is uncontroversial. The issues of 

authors are intertwined with the interests of the public. As the first beneficiaries of the copyright 

law, they are not a counterweight to the public interest but instead are at the very center of the 

equation. In the words of the Supreme Court, "[t]he immediate etIect of our copyright law is to 

secure a fair return for an 'author's' creative labor. But the ultimate aim is, by this incentive, to 

stimulate artistic creativity for the general public good.,,2 Congress has a duty to keep authors in 

its mind's eye, including songv'!riters, book authors, filmmakers, photographers, and visual 

artists. A law that does not provide for authors would be illogical - hardly a copyright law at 

all. 

Finally, evolving the Copyright Office should be a major goal of the next great copyright 

act. In short, it is ditlicult to see how a 21" century copyright law could function well without a 

21" century agency. The expertise of the Office is reflected in countless contributions over the 

last hundred years, including official studies, congressional hearings, treaty negotiations, trade 

agreements, policy recommendations, and legal interpretations, not to mention in the statute and 

its legislative history, and in opinions of the courts. But today, many constituents want the 

Copyright Oftice to do better the things it already does, and to do a host of new things to help 

make the copyright law more functional - from administering a small copyright claims tribunal 

to offering arbitration or mediation services to issuing advisory opinions. Moreover, as others 

have noted, the statute has become too detailed and less nimble, and could be more useful and 

flexible if certain aspects were handled administratively. 

In closing I would like to express my gratitude to the members of the Subcommittee for 

your interest in and commitment to copyright policy, and encourage you to think big. The next 

great copyright act is possible if you approach it comprehensively, and as always, the stafY of the 

U.S. Copyright Oftice is at your disposal. 

: ll1.-'entieth Centl/J}!JJusic Corp. v. ~l;ken, 422 US 151, 156 (1975) 
9 

ATTACHMENT 

THE NEXT GREAT COPYRIGHT ACT 

Twenty-Sixth Horace S. Manges Lecture 

by 

Maria A. Pallante l 

I. INTRODUCTION 

Tonight my topic is the next great copyright act, but before I speak about the 

future, I would like to talk a little about the past, including the role of the Copyright 

Office in past revision activities. In my remarks, I will address the need for 

comprehensive review and revision of U.S. copyright law, identify the most significant 

issues, and suggest a framework by which Congress should weigh the public interest, 

which includes the interests of authors. I also will address the necessary evolution of the 

Copyright Office itself. 

Those of you who have been to our offices in Washington know that we have a 

conference room featuring portraits of the former Registers of Copyright dating back to 

1897.2 When guests are seated at our table, the former Registers preside on high, wearing 

a variety of expressions and overseeing complex conversations about copyright law in the 

digital age. Sometimes I think they would be startled by the discussions we have, but 

then again it might all sound familiar. 

Solberg (1887-1933) 

Thorvald Solberg was the first and longest-serving Register of Copyrights. He 

seems inspired in his portrait, and for good reason. Solberg was a visionary leader, a 

champion of authors' rights, and an early advocate for the United States' adherence to the 

Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works ("Berne 

Convention,,). 3 Under his care, the Copyright Office grew fi'om a handful of employees 

to more than a hundred professional staff, and took on the many assorted roles that are 

still critical to the mission of the Office today. Solberg and his team administered the 

copyright registration system, managed the public records of copyright information, 

facilitated the delivery of books and other copyright deposits to thl: Library of Congress 

(the "Library"), served as substantive experts within the U.S. government, provided 

I Maria A. Pallante is Register of Copyrights of the United States and Director oftbe U.S Copyright Office. 

This is an extended version oflhe lecmre delivered on March 4, 2013 at Columbia University. See 37 

COLUM. J.L. & ARTS (forthcoming Spring 2013). The author would like to recognize the dedicated public 

service of rile past and present slaffofthe u.s. Copyright Office. 

2 The U.S. Copyright Office is located 011 Capitol Hill in tbe .lames Madison Memorial Building oflhe 

Library of Congress, Washington, Uc. Images of the portraits described herein are available for viewing at 

http://www .copyright.gov / docsi20 13 MangesLectureS lides. pdf. 

1 The Berne Conventioll for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, September 9, 1886, as revised at 

Paris on July 24, 1971 and as amended Sept. 28, 1979, 102 StaL 2853, ]161 V.N.T.S. 3 (entered into force 

in the United States March I, 1989). 
10 

policy advice to Congress, and represented the United States at international meetings.4 

He was Register dm'ing the revision process that led to the 1909 Act, in which copyrigbt 

term was extended to a total period of fifty-six years subject to renewal registration, but 

he began broaching the subject of automatic protection as early as the 1920's.5 

Kaminstein (1960-1971) 

Abraham (Abe) Kaminstein was Register during another key period for copyright 

revision. In his portrait, he stands in front of his law hooks, looking knowledgeable and 

perhaps a little impatient. He spent eleven years working with Congress and with 

stakeholders on revision issues, presiding over roundtables and legal studies and helping 

to mold many of the provisions that were enacted in the Copyright Act of 1976 ("1976 

Act" or "Copyright Act"). In fact, the revision process began in the 1950'8,6 during 

Arthur t'isher's tenure as Register, and did not conclude until five years after 

Kaminstein's departure, when Barbara Ringer was Register. 

'What might be obvious today, but nonetheless is instructive, is that the long 

revision process that led to the 1976 Act reflected a spectrum of issues, from small or 

technical fixes to wholly new or controversial provisions. Small decisions were 

important then, as they can be now, because they added a degree of certainty to the 

statute, making it more user-friendly for those who need to interpret and rely upon its 

provisions. An example is the decision in 1976 to set the end of the copyright term on 

the last day of the calendar year. 7 

More tedious were the issues where policy consensus was achieved in principle, 

but later compromised or undennined by over-negotiation. A good example here is 

temlination. 8 In copyright, the concept oftennination is rooted in the equitable principle 

that authors should share in the long-term value of their works. The policy is sound, but 

the provisions as enacted are almost incomprehensible on their face, particularly for the 

authors, widows, widowers, children, and other heirs who need to navigate them. 

The termination provisions are important for another reason, however. They 

show that Congress sometimes will migrate policy principles into a new context. In the 

1976 Act, Congress was moving to a singular and significantly longer term ofprutection, 

and phasing out the renewal periods and renewal registration requirement in the law. At 

the same time, Congress recognized that the renewal period had provided authors with a 

4 See generally I WILLIAM F. PATRY, COPYRIGHT LAW AND PRACTICE § 1.41 (2000); see also, John Y. 

Cole, Of Copyright, Men & A Nalional Library, 28 QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF THE LlIlRARY OF CONGRESS 

114,134 (1971), 

, See Thorvald Solberg, The Present Copyright Situation, 40 YALE L.J. 184, 195 (1930). 

6 See PATRY, supra note 4, § 1. 72. 

7 Under the 1909 Copyright Act, a copyright expired twenty-eight years (or fifty-six years ifthe copyright 

was renewed) after the datc "ffirst publication with notice or aller the date of registration (ill the case of 

unpublished works), See 1909 Act, 17 U.S.C. § 24 (repealed 1978). Under the CUlTen! statute, copyright 

expires at the end of the calendar year in the year of expiration. See 17 U,S.C § 305. 

s 17 U,S,C §§ 203, 304, 

2 
11 

legal trigger to renegotiate problematic licensing terms with their publishers and 

producers.9 Thus, in crafting the termination provisions, Congress was acknowledging 

the need for a new legal framework, but also was carrying over and reinventing a 

compelling policy objective. to 

Of course, the 1976 Act generated many discussions about exceptions and 

limitations, and iftoday's climate is any indication, they were not without complexity or 

controversy. Questions before Congress included whether and how to incorporate 

significant judicia! doctrines into the statute and whether and how to provide special 

treatment and specific guidance to discrete communities. Congress would codify the fair 

use doctrine, reaffiml the first sale doctrine, and create specific exceptions for libraries 

and archives, 11 but would choose to defcr any specific exceptions for educational use, 

concluding that such a treatment "is norjustified.,,12 These decisions reflect the work 

ethic of Congress when legislating copyright law for a new era. Congress looks to the 

equities of the statute as a whole and not just to the immediate interests before it. 

Finally, and again instructive, there were deliberations on an array of topics that 

shifted and depatted from the previous legal fi'amework and therefore were at the more 

challenging end oftbe revision spectrum. In the end, Congress would codify divisibility, 

extend lhe copyright terml} (a policy change strongly supported by Horace Manges,14 

incidentally), and relax formalities. ls In doing so, Congress was adapting the law to the 

times. It was not exactly fashioning solutions out of whole cloth, but it did a tremendous 

job in blending the world standards and pressures of global copyright law with the 

particular principles and practices of American democracy. 

9 This was more theoretical than practical, as many authors bargained away the renewal interest in advance. 

But see Stewart v. Abend, 495 U.S. 207, 235·36 (1990) (holding that derivative work rights for renewal 

tenus did not belong to assignees with which the author had earlier contracted because the author died 

before the renewal dare). 

10 Congress also considered reslricting the duration of licenses, for example, by limiting an author's license 

to periods of no more than ten years at a time. See U.S. COPYRIGHT OFFICE, STUDY No. 31, RENEWAL OF 

COPYRIGHT, al209 (1961) ("li.S. COPYRIGHT OFFICE, STUDY No. 31"). 

"See !7 U.S.C. §§ 107·109. 

12 H.R. REP. No. 94-1476, at 66·67 (1976). 

13 AI1icle 7 ofthe Berne Convention requires a minimum term of prot ecti 011 of fifty years following the 

death oflhe author. The United Slates' tenu extension pul the country more on par with the sixty-four 

countries that were already Beme members in 1976. See World Intellectual Property Organization, 

Contracting Parties, Berne COllvention, available at 

http://www.wipo.inllexportlsites/www/trealies/en/documents/pdf/beme.pdf. 

I' U.S. COPYRIGHT OFfiCE, COPYRIGHT LAW REVISION, STUDY NO. 30, DURAT10N OF COPYRIGHT, at 93 

(J 961) ("The most important improvement WQuld be a single term of copyright. Life ofthe author plus a 

50 year ternl would have certain advantages, among them that the whole body of an author's work 

(including revisions) would go out of copyright at the same time and that there would be a uniformity with 

the system utilized in leading European countries.") (statement of Horace Manges). 

15 See. e.g., 17 U.S.c. §§ 405, 406 (providing that errors in a copyright notice or the omission of a 

copyright notice would not necessarily invalidate the copyright in a published work). 
12 

Ringer (Register 1973-1980/ Acting Register 1993-1994) 

In 1973, Barbara Ringer, a Copyright Office lawyer who was already heavily 

involved in the revision process, became Register. Like Kaminstein, she worked closely 

with congressional leadership, including long-time copyright steward Robert 

Kasteruneier, who was deeply involved in much of the 1976 revision process while he 

was Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Properly and the 

Administration of Justice, and Senator John McClellan who also was very involved in all 

aspects of the reform etTort as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. J 6 Ringer 

and her team were involved in resolving last minute negotiations of the new law, 

documenting the significant legislative histOly, and implementing sweeping changes to 

the registration practices and related operations of the Copyright Office, 

Ringer's portrait is very fomlaL Staring into the distance, she: looks elegant but 

pensive, and perhaps a little concerned. Ringer was a staunch protector of authors and 

their role in a civilized society, and she began to wony about the future of the law, 

including what she saw as a growing effort by some to erode the copyright system by 

attempting to cast it as an obstacle rather than as a means to the dissemination of 

knowledge. She wrote passionately about this in her well-known article entitled The 

Demonolo&'Y of Copyright. 17 

Peters (1994-2010) 

Ringer was not wrong that copyright discussions were changing, both in 

complexity and tone, and she was not wrong to be uneasy. By the time my predecessor 

Marybeth Peters became Register in 1994, the world was well on its way to 

unprecedented technological change and therefore dramatic upheaval for copyright 

markets and copyright law, The times required Congress to act more boldly than before, 

not only to affirm core principles of copyright protection but also to provide guidance and 

direction to good faith intermediaries. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act 

("DMCA"),18 enacted in ] 998, was innovative ill this regard. Among other things, it 

created a notice-and-takedown procedure for copyright owners and online intemlediaries, 

a corresponding safe harbor from liability,19 and legal protection for technological 

protection measures. 20 

16 Rep. Kastenmeier served in the House of Representatives from January 3, 1959 to January 3, 1991 and 

was Chairman oflhe Subcommittee on Courts. Intellectual Property, and the Administration of Jnstice from 

1969 IO 1990, Senator McClellan represented the State of Arkansas in the Senate from 1942 nntil his 

death in J 977, He served on a nnmber of cOIllmittees and his greatest contribution arguably is his work on 

the Judiciary Committee, which included a complete overhaul ofthc criminal code (in addition to 

comprehensive copyright reform), 

17 See BARBARA A. RINGER, THE DEMONOLOGY OF COPYRIGHT: SECOND OF TllE R,R, BOWKER MEMORIAL 

LECTURES (R.R. Bowker Co. 1974), 

18 Pub, L. No, 105-304, 112 Stat. 2860 (1998). 

" 17 U,S,C. § 512, 

20 17lJ.S,C. !i 1201. 

4 
13 

As is the case today in matters of complex copyright policy, passage ofthe 

DMCA harnessed expertise from throughout the government.2! The Clinton 

Administration negotiated the [nternet treaties and released a series of papers for public 

discussion, Congress negotiated their implementation into U.S. law, and a number of 

amendments were entrusted to the Copyright Office to administer, including a 

rulemaking procedure to address the intersection of the anti circumvention provisions and 

noninfringing uses. 

By the way, Peters is fittingly optimistic in her portrait. 

n. WHY IT IS TIME FOR REVISION 

In American copyright law, there have been revisions and then there have been 

revisions. As a general matter, Congress introduces bills, directs stndies, conducts 

hearings, and discusses copyright policy on a fairly regular basis, and has done so for two 

centnries. But revision of the comprehensive sort is an entirely different matter. It 

requires a clear and forward-thinking set of goals and a sustained commitment from 

Congress, most celtaillly over multiple sessions. As Solberg observed in 1926, there 

comes a time when the "subject ought to be dealt with as a whole, and not by further 

merely partial or temporizing amendments.,,22 

In general, major copyright revisions require Members of Congress, including 

especially the committee leaders who are responsible for the govemanee of intellectual 

property, and their staffs, to have a meaningful degree of fluency in the substance of 

copyright law. While high level or even philosophical discussions do have a place in 

policy discussions, amending the law eventually comes down to the negotiation of 

complex and sometimes arcane provisions ofthe statute. Some of these provisions are 

challenging for copyright experts, let alone for elected oUicials who have a multitude of 

other national and international responsibilities. Add to this the intensity with which 

interested pmiies across the copyright spectrum sometimes make their views known, and 

the public's confusion ifnot aversion when it comes to copyright issues,2J and it is little 

wonder that Congress has moved slowly in the copyright space. 

Recent Years 

In terms of enacted legislation, Congress primarily has made minor adjustments 

or technical corrections in recent years. Consider, for example, the Copyright Cleanup, 

21 See Information Infrastmcture Task Force, Working Group on Intellectual Property Rights, Intellectual 

Property and the National ilijiJrmation infrastructure: A Preliminary Draft of the Report of the Working 

Group on Intellectual Property Righls (1994); Information Infrastructure Task Force, Global Information 

infrastructure: Agendafor Cooperation (1995), 

22 Thorvald Solberg. Copyright Law Reform, 35 YALE LJ. 48, 62 (1926). 

"See Jane C, Ginsburg, How Copyright Got a Bad .Varnefor Itself, 26 COLlJM, J. & ARTS 61, 61-62 (2002) 

("I have a theory about how copyright got a bad name for itself, and J can summarize it in one word: Greed, 

Corporate greed and consumer greed,"). 
14 

Clarification, and Corrections Act of2010,24 the Satellite Television Extension and 

Localism Act of2010,25 the Temporary Extension Act of 2010/" followed by the 

Continuing Extension Act of 20 1 0,27 and three webcaster settlement acts in 2002, 2008, 

and 200928 

Where Congress was able to act more substantively, its focus was directed at the 

growing problem of piracy in the digital environment - for example the ART Aet of 

200S/9 which addressed camcording in movie theatres, and the PRO-IP Act of2008,30 

which enhanced certain civil remedies and criminal sanctions, improved [lmding and 

resources for several tederal enforcement programs, and created the position of the 

Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator ("{PEC"). 

Certainly, Congress is aeting responsibly when it makes discrete adjustments to 

the copyright law from time to time, but its more valuable role always has come from 

reviewing, and addressing as appropriate, the larger policy themes and developments that 

require attention. In this regard, the last sustained period of copyright activity was fifteen 

years ago, a period that produced the DMCA and the Copyright Term Extension Act,3l as 

well as concomitant changes to the library and archives exception. During this time, 

Congress, though legislating in a charged atmosphere, acted on copyright policy with 

authority, leaving a very visible and very far-reaching imprint on the development of both 

law and commerce. In the age of the Internet, where technology can so quickly affect the 

creation and communication of creative materials, these global reviews may need to 

happen more frequently. 

Preparatory Work 

The next great copyright act would not require Congress to start from scratch 

because, since 1998, it has put in motion a steady stream ofpreparatOly work on core 

issues. For example, Congress has had more than a decade of debate on the public 

perforn1ancc right for sound recordings,32 and given serious consideration to improving 

24 Pub. L. "10.111-295, 124 Stat. 3180 (2010). 

15 Pub, L. No. 11-175,124 Stat. 1218 (2010). 

26 Pub. L. No. 1I1-144, 124 Stat. 42 (2010). 

27 Pub. L. No. 111-157, 124 Stat. II J 6 (20 (0). 

28 Small Webcastcr Settlement Act 0[2002, Pub. L. No. 107-321, 116 Stat. 2780 (2002), Webcaster 

Settlement Act of2008. Pub. L. No. 110-435, 122 Stat. 4974 (2008); and Webcaster Settlement Act of 

2009, Pub. L. No. 111-36, 123 Stat. 1926 (2009). 

29 Pub. L. 1'>0.109-9,119 Stat. 218 (2005). 

lO Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act of 2008 ("PRO-IP Act"), Pub, L. 

No. 110-403, 122 Stat. 4256 (2008). 

31 Sonny Bono Copyright Ternl Extension Act, Pub. L. No. 105-298, 112 Stat. 2827 (1998). 

32 See, e.g., Ensuring Artists Fair Compensation: Updating the Pelformance RighI and Platform Parity for 

the 21s/ Century: Hearing Before the Subcomm. on Courts, the Internet. and [ntellectua! Property of the H 

Comm. 011 the Judiciary, 110th Congo (2007) (statement of M.rybcth Peters, Register of Copyrights); The 

Performance Rights Act and Parity among Music Delil'el;' rlatforms: Hearing Before the S, Comlll. on the 

Judiciary, III th Congo (2009) (statement of Marybcth Peters, Register o[Copyrights); and Internet 

6 
15 

the way in which musical works are licensed in the marketplace.3

] 'These issues are ripe 

for resolution. 

Similarly, Congress has requested that the Copyright Office prepare a number of 

formal studies and analyses and conduct public inquiries and roundtables on important 

issues. Although none ofthese were undertaken for the purpose of a comprehensive 

revision, they provide Congress with a fair amount of background on issues that would be 

relevant to the next great copyright act. Consider the following Copyright Office studies, 

for example: 

An early report on the issue of digital first sale;34 

A major study and ongoing recommendations on orphan works 

solutions;35 

Multiple reports on reforming or possibly eliminating the statutory 

licenses for cable and satellite retransmission under sections ill. 

119, and 122;36 ' 

• An analysis of termination provisions in the context of pre-1978 

contracts;37 

An analysis of the legal and business issues relating to mass 

digitization;38 

Streaming of Radio Broadcasts: Balancing the Jl1Ieresfs (if Sound Recording Copyright Owners with those 

of Broadcasters, Hearing B~l()rc the Subcomm. on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property uflhe II. 

Comm. on the Judiciary, 108th Cong, (2004) (statemcnt of Marybcth Peters, Register of Copyrights). 

3J Congress has introduced legislation and held multiple hearings on reforming the statutory license for 

reproducing and distributing musical works under section 115. See Seclion 115 Act (SlRA) of 2006, 

Hearing Before the Subcomm. 011 Co UriS, the inlernel, and Intellectual Properly H. Comm. on the 

Judiciary, 1091h Congo (2006). 

J4 U.S. COPYRIGHT OFFICE, DMCA SECT10N 104 REPORT: A REPORT OF mE REGISTER OF COPYRIGHTS 

PURSUANT TO § 104 or THE DIGITAL MILLENNIUM COPYRIGHT Aet (2.001) (the "SECTION 104 REPORT"), 

available at http://'WWV.l.copyrigh1.gov!reportslstudiesldmca/dmca_study,htmL 

35 U.S. COPYRIGHT OPFrCE, REPORT ON ORPHAN WORKS (2006) (the "ORPHAN WORKS REPORT"), available 

at http://wv.w.copyright.gov/orphan/orphan-report-full.pdf. 

36 U.S. COPYRIGHT OFFICE, SATELLITE TELEVrS10N AND LOCALlS~1 ACT. § 302 REPORT (2011) (the 

"SECTION 302 REPORT"), available at hltp:/lwww.copyright.gov/reporl,!section302-report.pdf;U.S. 

COPYRIGHT OFFICE, SATELLlTE HOME VIEWER EXTENSION AND REAUTHORIZA nON ACT SECTION 109 

REPORT (2008), available at bttp:!iwww.copyright.gov/reportslsection I09-final-rcport.pdf, and U.S. 

COPYRIGHT OFFiCE, SA TEl.l HE HOME VIEWER EXTENSION AND REAUTHORIZATION ACT § ! 10 REPORT 

(2006), available at http://www.copyright.gov/reportslsnlellite-repon.pdf. 

37 U.s. COPYRIGHT OfFICE, ANALYSlS OF GAP GRANTS UNDER THE TERMINATION PROVISIONS OF TrTLE 17 

(2010), available al hUp:/lwww.copyright.gov/reportslgap-grant-analysis.pdf. 

7 
16 

A report on the federalization of protection for pre-1972 sound 

recordings;39 

A pending analysis on the propriety of a resale royalty for visual 

artists;40 and 

A pending study on solutions for enforcement of small copyright 

claims.41 

Finally, Congress has introduced a number of bills that have not moved much 

over the years, on a variety of issues that it mayor may not wish to consider further. For 

example, in the past ten years, bills have been introduced that would extend copyrightlike protection to fashion designs,42 exempt churches from inlringemt::nt liability for 

showing football games,43 add a fair usc excmptiml to section 1201,4'1 require a nominal 

fcc to retain copyright protection after fifty years,45 and require new standards for 

Copyright Royalty Judges with regard to webcasting.46 A general revision effort would 

offer everyone the opportunity to step back and consider issues both large and small, as 

well as the relationship of these issues to the larger statute and the importance or 

unimpOliance ofintemational developments. 

The Courts 

It should come as no surprise thai eourts also are reflecting the wear and tear of 

the statute. In some areas, courts have picked up where Congress left off. Thus in the 

context of peer-to-peer networks, courts have fashioned the concept ofindueement as 

part of the secondary liability analysis, and in the context of the DMCA, courts have 

interpreted section 512's knowledge standards.47 In other areas, courts appear to be 

struggling with existing statutory language. Consider the Second Circuit's 2008 

38 u.s. COPYRIGHT OFFICE, LEGALISSUES IN MASS OrGITIZATION: A PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS AND 

DISCUSSION DOCUMENT (2011) (the "MASS DIGITIZATrON REPORT"), available at 

http ://wv,">v .copyrigln.gov / docs/massdi gitizationlUSCO MassDigitization _Octo bcr20 II.pdf. 

39 U, S. COPYRIGHT OFfiCE, FEDERAL COPYRIGHT PROTECTION FOR PRE-l 972 SOUND RECORDlNGS (2011), 

available at htlp://www,copyright.gov/docslsound/pre-n-reporLpdf. 

40 See Resale Royalty Right: ;\Iotice oflnquiry, 77 Fed. Reg. 58,175 (Sept. 19,2012). 

41 See Remedies for Smail Copyright Claims: Notice oflnquiry. 76 Fed. Reg. 66,758 (Oct. 27, 2011). 

42 H.R. 5055, 1091h Congo (2006); HK 2033, 10th Congo (2007); S. 1957, I 10th Congo (2007); ilK 

2196, II Ith Cong, (2009). 

43 S. 2591, ] 10th Congo (2008). 

44 H.R. 107, 1081h Congo (2003). 

4511.R. 2601,108111 Congo (2003). 

46 H.R. 6480, 1121h Congo (2012); S. 3609, 112th Congo (2012). 

41 See, e.g., Viacom Int'!, Inc. v. YouTube, Inc., 676 F.3d 19 (2d Cir. 2012); Columbia Pictures Indus., Inc. 

v. Fung, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 122661 (C.D. Cal. 2009). 
17 

Cablevision holding on public perfonnances,48 which indicates that a performance is not 

made "to the public" unless more than one person is capable of receiving a particular 

transmission (i.e., a transmission made using a unique copy of a given work). As the 

Solicitor General's Office noted, "[s]uch a construction could threaten to undermine 

copyright protection in circumstances far beyond those presented.,,49 Moreover, this 

comes at the very time that copyrighted works are increasingly disseminated via 

streaming, thus making the public perfonnance right more important than ever. 

In some cases, courts have expressed their opinions about the statute directly in 

their decisions. For example, in Authors Guild v. Google Inc., the Southern District of 

New York stated that "[t]he questions of who should be entrusted with guardianship over 

orphan books, under what terms, and with what safeguards arc matters more 

appropriately decided by Congress than through an agreement among private, selfinterested parties.,,50 In Sony BAfG Alusic Entertainment v. Tenenbaum, the First Circuit 

observed that Congress might wish to examine the application of the Copyright Act 

regarding statutory damages. 51 In a case involving streaming video, the Seventh Circuit 

noted thc difficulty of determining when a public perfonnance begins and stated that 

"[l]egislative clarification ofthe public-perfonnance provision of the Copyright Act 

would therefore be most welcome.,,52 And in Golan v. Holder, the Supreme Court 

observed that Congress may need to consider legislative solutions to offset "[o]ur 

unstinting adherence to Beme."SJ 

Readability 

Finally, we need a clearer copyright act for a rather simple reason: more and 

more people are affected by it Because the dissemination of content is so pervasive to 

life in the 21 st century, copyright issues are necessarily pervasive as well- from fair use 

in education to statutory licenses for new businesses, to the parameters of liability and 

enforcement online and in thc home. Regulations and education could certainly help in 

some instances. However, if une needs an army of lawyers to understand the basic 

precepts of the law, then it is time for a new law. 

m. REVISION ISSUES 

The next great copyright act must be forward thinking but flexible. It should not 

attempt to answer the entire universe of possible questions, but, no matter what, it must 

4R Cartoon Network. LP v. CSC Holdings. Inc., 536 F.3d 121 (2d CiL 2008). 

" Brief ofthe United StGtes as Amicus Curiae at 20-21, Cable News Network, Inc. v. CSC Holdings, Inc., 

No. 08-448 (U.S. 2009). 

5° 770 F. Supp. 2d 666, 677 (S.D.N.Y. 2011). 

51 660 F.3d 487,490 (1st Cir. 2011), ccrt. denied, 132 S. Ct. 2431 (2012). 

" Flava Works, Inc. v. Gunter, 689 F.3d 754, 761 (7lh CiL 2012). 

53 Golan v. Holder, 132 S. Ct. 873,894 (2011) (noting the long tel1Il of copyright tel1Il as a factor in current 

problems like orphan works). 

9 
18 

serve the public interest. Thus, it must confhm and rationalize certain fundamental 

aspects of the law, including the ability of authors and their licensees to control and 

exploit their creative works, whether content is distributed on the street or streamed from 

the cloud. 

This control carmot be absolute, but it needs to be meaningful. After all, people 

around the world increasingly are accessing content on mobile devices54 and [ewer and 

fewer of them will need or desire the physical copies that were so central to the 19th and 

20th century copyright laws. Thus, Congress has a central equation to consider today: 

what does and does not belong under a copyright owner's control. Congress also will 

want to consider the exceptions and limitations, enforcement tools, licensing schemes, 

and the registration system it wants for the 21" century. 

Major Issues 

Exclusive Rights 

Among the specific issues at play are the application of longstanding but evolving 

exclusive rights, such as reproduction and distribution, as well as the application and 

evolution of the public perfonnancc right on the Internet (for examfle, to authorize the 

streaming of music, movies, television shows, Of sporting events).5 

Starting with the latter, I would be remiss ifI did not underscore the Copyright 

Office's long history of supporting a more complete right of public performance for 

sound recordings, commensurate with the rights afforded to other classes of works in 

U.S. law and provided for in virtually all industrialized countries around the globe. 56 As 

noted above, this is an issue on which Congress has spenl many years deliberating. 

Owners of sound recordings are disadvantaged under current law in that they enjoy an 

14 See, e.g., Intemational Telecommunications Union, ITU releases /rllest globallechnology development 

figures (Feb. 27, 2013) ("leT Facts and Figures report predicts that there will soon be as many mobilecellular subscriptions as people inhabiting the planet, with the llgure set to nudge past the seven billion 

mark early in 2014. More than halfofa1l mobile subscriptions arc now in Asia, which remains the 

powerhouse ofmarke! growth, and by the end 0[20!3 overall mobile penetration rates will have reached 

96% globally, 128"1., in the developed world, and 89% in developing countries"), available al 

http://v.,ww,itll.intinetipressoffice/press_releases/20J 3/05 .aspx. 

55 The 1976 Act's exclusive rights are set forth in 17U.S.C. § 106. Also at play may be the distinction 

between commercial and noncommercial activit.ies or some reasonable definition thereot; and the 

distinction between published and unpublished works, which continues to affect the operation of core 

provisions. 

'" "Many countries afthe world, and virtually all industrialized countries, recognize perfonnance rights for 

sound recordings, including performances made by means ofhmadcast transmissions .... These countTies 

recognize the incredible value of a recording artist's interpretation of a musical composition or other ru1islic 

work." Ensuring Artists Fair Compensalion: Updating the Performance Right alld Platform Parily/or the 

21" Cenlury, Hearing B~fore the Subcomm. on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property of the H. 

Comm. on the Judiciary, ! 1 Oth Congo (2007) (statement of Marybeth Peters, Register of Copyrights), 

available at http://www.copyright.gov/docsiregstat073107.htmL 

10 
19 

exclusive right of reproduction and distribution but not public performance. 57 Moreover, 

because ofthe disparity in royalty obligations, there is an increasingly stark cconomic 

disadvantage for businesses that offer sound recordings over the Internet. Congress has 

done quite a lot of thinking on this already. How to craft a final resolution should be 

squarely on the table of comprehensive revision. 

The scope of the distribution right also is a central theme today, as courts work 

thtough whether and how it may be implicated and enforced in relation to use of works 

over the Internet 5S One key issue in tbe courts is the degree to which a claimed violation 

of the exclusive right to authorize distribution of a work requires a showing of actual 

dissemination of a work or whether the act of making the work available online is 

sufficient.59 

Incidental Copies 

The reproduction right could also use a makeover, but for a different reason. The 

reproduction right has been a valuable tool in enforcement proceedings, helping to 

ameliorate the confusion or inadequacies of other provisions, particularly in the context 

of peer-to-peer file sharing or illcgal streaming. 60 However, new technologies have made 

it incrcasingly apparcnt that not all reproductions arc equal in the digital age. Some 

copies are merely incidental to an intended primary use of a work, including where 

57 In 1995, a limited right 10 perform a sound recording publicly by means of a audio transmission 

was added at 17 U.S.C. § 106(6) in order for the United States to comply with 15 of the WIPO 

Performances and Phonogram, Treaty, but no comparable right exists with respect to the public 

performances of sound recordings over the air by traditional broadcasters. 

"See Petcr Menell, In Search afCopyright's Lost Ark: Interpreting the Righi to Dislrihule illihe Internet 

Age, 59 J. OF THE COPYRIGHT Soc. OF THE U.S,A. 1,6 (2011); David 0. Carson, Making the Making 

Available Right Available 22nd Annual Horace S. Manges Leclure, 33 COLUM. lL. & ARTS 135,150 

(20lO); Robert Kasunic. Making Circumstantial PraofufDistribution Available, 18 FORDHAM INTELL. 

PROP. MEDIA & ENT. LJ. 1145 (2008). 

59 See, e.g .. Universal Cit)' Studios Prods. LLP v, Bigwood, 441 F. Supp. 2d 185 (D. Me. 2006) (holding 

that defendants violated plaintiffs exclusive right to distribute copyrighted works "by using KaZaA to 

make copies of tile Motion Pictmcs available to thousands ofpeoplc over the intemet"); Interscope Records 

v. Duty, 2006 WL 9R80R6, at '2 (D. Ariz. Apr. J 4,20(6) (holding that [he "mere presence of copyrighted 

[works] in [defendant's] share file may constitnte copyright infringement"); Motown Record Co. v, 

DePietro, 2007 WL 576284, at *3 (EoD. Pa. Fen. 16,2007) (finding that infringement of the distribution 

right can be based on actual distribution or by an otTer to distribute, i.e . • proofthat the work was "made 

available" by the defendant); Atlantic Recording CO/po v. Anderson, 2008 WL 2316551, at *7 (S.D. Tex. 

Mar. 12.2008) (holding that making copyrighted works available for download via a peer-Io-peer network 

contemplates "further distribution," which is a violation of the distribution right); F,/ektra Entln'/ Group, 

Inc. v. Barker, 55t F. Supp. 2d 234 (S.D.N.Y 2008) (stopping short of endorsing a full "making available" 

right, but acceptiug that an offer 10 distribute a work for the purpose of its furtber distribution or public 

perfomlance constitutes an infringement of the distribution right). But see London-Sire Record,'. lnc. v. 

Doe. 542 F. Supp. 2d 153 (D. Mass. 2(08) (conclllding that "defendants cannot be liable for violating the 

plaintiffs' distribution right unless" 'distribution' actually occurred"); Atlal1lic Recording Corp. v. 

Howell. 554 F.Supp.2d 976 (D. Ariz. 2008) (concluding tbat "[mJcrcly making an unauthorized copy ofa 

copyrighted work available to the public does not violate a copyright holder'S exclusive right of 

distribution"). 

60 See Carson, supm nole 58 at 150. 

11 
20 

primary uses are licensed, and these incidental copies should not necessarily be treated as 

intl-inging. 

The 1976 Act recognized and addressed the incidcntal nature of certain copics by 

providing fact-specific exceptions and limitations in sections] 12 (for making ephemeral 

recordings of certain works in order to facilitate broadcast transmissions) and 117 (for 

making a copy of a computer program - such as a "read-only" copy - that is essential for 

the utilization of that work). The DMCA did the same in scction512 (tor the 

inteIDlediate and temporary storage of copyrighted material in the course of transitory 

digital network conmlUnications and system caching) and in section 117 (for making an 

incidental copy of a computer program when maintaining or repairing a machine that 

contains an authorized copy of that program).61 

In 2001, the Cop}Tight Office examined the issue in a report known as the Section 

104 RepOli. There, the Office noted the uncertainty around temporary copies of works in 

the context of digital commerce, and the fact that "courts had strayed away from 

fornlUlating a general rule defining how long a reproduction must endure to be 'fixed,' 

deciding instead on a case-by-case basis whether the particular reproduction at issue 

sufficed.,,62 The Section 104 Report recommended the enactment of several additional 

exemptions for the creation of copies that are incidental to licensed use.63 

Because incidental or tmnsient copies arc made by consumers on a daily basis and 

in a variety of otherwise lawful activities involving consumer electronics and computer 

programs, there may be room for yet fllliher discussion of this issue.64 In any event, as 

the confusion over incidental copies has persisted, this is an area where Congress could 

provide a voice of reason, 

Enforcement 

A 21" century copyright act requires 21 s! century enforcement strategies. These 

must respect the technical integrity and expressive capabilities of the Internet as well as 

the rule of law. It is possible and necessary to combine safeguards for free expression, 

guarantees of due process, and respect for intellectual property in the copyright law. As 

the Supreme Court recognized, "the Framers intended copyright itself to be the engine of 

free expression.,,65 

" In 1998, the Computer Maintcnanee Competition Assurancc Act amended section 117 by inserting 

headings for subsections (a) and (b) and by adding subsections (c) and (d). Pub. L. No. 105-304, 112 Slat. 

2860,2887. 

62 SECTION 104 REPORT, supra note 34 at Ill. 

6) See id. at 141. 

64 See e.g., Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic at U,C. Berkeley School of Law and the 

Stanford Cyberlaw Clinic on behalf of Public Knowledge, Copyright Re/orm Act: Providing an Incidental 

Copies Exemption/or Service Providers and End-Users (March 3 J, 2011), available al: 

http://www.publicknowledge.orglfiles/docsicraincidentalcopies.pdf. 

65 Harper & Row Pubs., Inc, v. Nation El1lers., 471 U.S. 539, 558 (1985). 

12 
21 

In ~hOli, the nex.t great copyright act presents an opportunity. All members of the 

online ecosystem should have a role, including payment processors, advertising 

networks, search engines, Internet service providers, and copyright owners. These 

strategies can be a mix oflegislative solutions and complementary voluntary initiatives,66 

but where gaps in the law exist Congress should not be absent.67 

One critical issue is the ability aflaw enforcement to prosecute the rising tide of 

illegal streaming in the criminal context.68 Streaming implicates the copyright owner's 

exclusive right of public performance: it is a major means by which copyright owners 

license their rights in sporting events, television programs, movies, and music to 

cllstomers, who in turn access the content on their televisions, smart phones, tablets, or 

video cOllsoles.6Y Under current law there is a disparity that may have once been oflittle 

consequence but is today a major problem: prosecutors may pursue felony charges in the 

case of illegal reproductions or distributions, but are limited to misdemeanor charges 

when the work is streamed, even where sueh conduct is large scale, willful and 

undertaken for a profit motive.70 As a practical matter, prosecutors have little incentive 

to file charges at all, or to pursue only those cases where the rights of reproduction and 

distTibution are also at issue. This lack of parity neither reflects nor serves the digital 

marketplace. 71 

66 For example, a number afrights holders and service providers recently announced a voluntary 

"Copyright Alert System" that will help educate the public and address online infringing occurring 011 

certain networks. See http://wwwocopyrightinformation.org!. 

67 For example, Congress has looked at the sufficiency of enforcement mechanisms in cases where bad 

faith actors are offering infringing conten! to U,So COllsumers from websites controlled outside of the 

United States, a situation where the proposed solutions have generated a great deal of conlTOversy and 

which arc, at very leaRt, as complex us the problem itself See, e.g., Promoting Investment and Protecting 

Commerce Onlinc Legitimate Sites v. Parasites, Parll, Hearing Before the SubcOimn on Intellectual 

Properly, Competition, and the Internet afthe H. Commo on the Judiciary, 112th Congo (2011); Targeting 

Websites Dedicated 10 Stealing American Intellectual Properly. Hearing Before the s. Commo on the 

.Judiciary, 1 12th Congo (2011). 

6. See OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRA.DE REPRESENTATIVE, SPEC1AL 301 REPORT, II (20 I J) (noting the 

problem ofillcgal streaming and linking sites); and ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND 

DbVELOPMENT, PIRACY OF DIGITAL CONTENT, CASE STUDY: THE SPORTS OWNERS SECTOR, 90 (2009) 

(discussing streaming of sporting events). 

69 According to one recent study, video streaming traffic alone now accounts for more than one quarter of 

allintemer traffic and is among the faSIest growing areas of the Inteme\. See Envisional, Technical Report: 

All Estimate of Infringing Use of the Internet 3, 19 (2011). 

70 See 18 U.Soc. § 2319(b)(I). 

71 See Promoting Investment and Protecting Commerce Online: The ART Act. The NET Act and Illegal 

Streaming: Hearing Before the Subcommo on intellectual Property, Competition, and the internet of the H. 

Comnlo on the Judiciary, 1 j 2th Congo (2011); see also Administration's While Paper on Intellectual 

Property Enforcement LegislaTive Recommendations at 10 (March 2011), available at 

http://www.whitehouseogovlsiiesldefault/files/ip _ white~aper.pdf (HTo ensure thai Federal copyrighllaw 

keeps pace with infringers, and to ensure that DO] and ns. law enforcement .gencie" are able to 

effectively combat infringement involving new technology, the Administration recommends that Congress 

clarify that infringement by strcaming, or by means of other similar new technology, is a felony in 

appropriate circumstances."). 

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22 

Mechanisms for small copyright claims are also an active topic and the current 

focus ofa Copyright Office study.72 Under current law, copyright lawsuits are reserved 

to the federal COUltS. While this ensures consistency in the treatment of federal subject 

matter, it can also be quite cosily and time consuming, effectively preventing the 

enforcement of many infringement claims of authors and others who do not have or 

cannot justify expending the resources. The question is whcther Congress should create a 

streamlined adjudicative process to assist copyright owners with claims of small 

economic value. 73 

This brings me to statutory damages. Some would eliminate the precondition in 

section 412 of the Copyright Act that limits the availability of statutOlY damages to those 

who register with the Copyright Office in a timely manner.74 They believe that it places 

an undue burden on the people who need statutOlY damages the most but are least likely 

to be aware ofthe condition, namely authors. Cost is also an issue, particularly for 

prolific creators like photographers, who may be unable to register each and every work 

under a separate application and have for years enjoyed a reduced rate through a group 

registration option, This gives photographers the ability to claim statutory damages, but 

often without providing effective public disclosure of what the group registration covers. 

Section 412 also acts as a filter, reducing the number of claims from copyright owners 

and the level of exposure for infringers. Unfort1.mately, it does this for bad faith actors 

and good faith actors alike. 

Section 412 was designed as a precaution and an incentive in ] 976 - a time 

when the law was moving to automatic protection and many were wOITied about the 

ramifications for authors, the public record and the Library of Congress' collection. 

Section 412 thus creates a bargain: the copyright owner preserves his ability to elect 

statutory damages in exchange for registering, thereby ensuring a more complete public 

record of copyright information and a better collection for the Library of Congress. 

72 See http://www.copyright.gov/docsismallclaimsi. Congress has asked the Copyright Office to study the 

challenges "fthe current system for resolving small copyright claim disputes, as well as possible alternative 

systems, and to report back by the end of Scptember 2013, 

'J The Copyright Office is not the only govemment agency investigating the issue of smaller-value 

intellectual property claims. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is conducting a review of small patent 

claims. See Request for Comments on l'atenl Small Claims Proceedings in the United States, 77 Fed. Reg. 

74,830 (Dec. 18,2012). The issue is also not limited to the United States; the United Kingdom has 

instituted a special track for smaller-value intellectual property claims. See New small claims track/or 

businesses with IF disputes, hltp:iiwww.ipo.gov.uklaboutlpressfpress-releaseipress-release-20 12/pressrele.se-20 12! 00 I.hlm. 

74 Section 412 provides that, with certain exceptions, statutory damages and awards of attorney's fees arc 

not available to the copyright owner when: (I) infringement of copyright in an unpublished work 

commenced before the effective date of its registration; or (2) infringement of copyright commenced after 

first publication of the work and before the effective date ofils regi8tralion, '!!lIes. such registration was 

made within three months aller the lirst pUblication oflhe work. See 17 U.S.C. § 412. 

14 
23 

Whether and how section 412 has achieved these goals may be ripe for review 

again.75 Certainly, the public database is important and the Library's collection is 

critical, However, if statutory damages arc to remain tethered to registration, then the 

public record will need to be much more useful to prospective licensees than it is now. 

To this end, one professor has suggested that the recordation ftmction in the law could be 

improved hy requiring exclusive licensees to record their licenses promptly or risk their 

rights defaulting back to the grmltor76 

More globally, arguments abound on the subject of statutory damages, suggesting 

that they are either too high, too low, too easy, or too hard to pursue. Statutory damages 

have long been an importmlt part of copyright law to ensure that copyright owners are 

compensated for infringement, at least where actual damages are unworkable. The 

Copyright Act of 1790 included a provision awarding the copyright owner fifty cents for 

every sheet of an unauthorized copy that was printed, published, or imported or exposed 

to sale. 77 Stamtory damages should remain squarely in the next great copyright act 

irrespective of section 412. However, there may be plenty to do on the edges, including 

providing guidance to the courts (e,g., in considering whether exponential awards against 

individuals for the infringement oflurge numbers of works should bear a relationship to 

the actual harm or profit involved), and finding new ways to improve the public record of 

copyright ownership. 

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act 

A general review of copyright issues in the 21 ,t century would be incomplete 

without a review of the DMCA. On the one hand, it is our best mode! of future-leaning 

legislation, On the other hand, fifteen years have passed and the world - including most 

notably the Internet - has evolved. Thus, if only for the exercise of establishing how the 

DMCA is working, including how affected parties have implemented its provisions and 

courts across the country have applied it, Congress should take stock ofthe last decade 

and a half. 

The section 512 safe harbors in particular have generated more than their fair 

share of litigation on issues such as eligibility for the safe harbor, inducement, and 

monitoring.'s Some of these issues were imaginable at the time at the time of their 

75 See THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON REGlSTRATION Al'<D DEPOSIT, REPORT OF 

THE CO-CHAIRS, ROBERT WEDGEWORTll AND BARBARA RINGER, at 6 (1993) ("ACCORD REPORT"). 

76 Jane C, Ginsburg, The U.S. Experience with Copyright Formalities: A Love/Hate Relationship, 33 

COLUM. J. L. & ARTS 311, 345-46 (2010); see also Directive 20061l16/EC afthe European Parliament and 

orthe Cquncil of 12 Dec. 2006, at 1 (offering a longer term of protection where the a1lthor is identified), 

77 See U,S. Copyright Act ofl790, J Stal. 124 (1970), 

'" See, e.g" UMG Recordings, Inc, v. Shelter Capital Partners LLC. Case No, 09-55902, at 33 (9th Cir. 

Mar. 14,2013) (concluding that "merely hosting a catcgOty of copyrightable content, such as music videos, 

with the general knowledge that one's services could be used to share infringing material, is insumcient" to 

prove that a website had actual knowledge ofinfringing activity); Viaeom In! '/, Inc, v, You Tube, [nc., 676 

F.3d 19 (2d Cir 2012) (distinguiShing actual knowledge - or s1lbjective awareness of specific infringing 

acts - from "red flag" knowledge, which the COllr! described as an objective standard turning on whether 

the service provider was aware ofIacts from which a reasonable person would infer the existence of 

15 
24 

enactment, and others were not. There are other concems that go more generally to the 

question of whether the burdens of notice and take down are tairly shared between 

copyright owners and intennediaries. 

The DMCA also created legal protections for the technological protection 

measures used by copyright owners, as well as a triennial rulemaking process by which 

proponents could make the case for temporary exemptions to such measures, to allow 

circumvention in certain cases where it is necessary to permit noninti-inging activity.79 

The Copyright Office has conducted five rulemakings since 1998. so Each rulemaking is 

conducted de novo and includes an evidentiary record developed during the proceedings. 

Congress intended the rulemaking to provide "a fail-safe mechanism"sl for noninfringing 

uses, including fair uses. Like much of Title 17, the mechanisms ofthe rulemaking may 

benefit from congressional review at this timc, but it generally has served the Nation 

well. 

During the last proceeding, concluded in 2012, the Copyright Office 

recommcnded, and the Librarian granted, six exemptions that ran the gamut of 

technological issues. These included exemptions tor persons with print disabilities using 

assistive technologies like screen readers, as well as exemptions for teachers and 

documentary filmmakers accessing protected motion pictures in the course of their work. 

When the Copyright Office has not recommended exemptions, it has been 

because the balancing of the factors set forth in section 1201 did not favor doing so - that 

is, because the legal or evidentiary st1Uldards (or both) had not been met. In the most 

recent mlemaking, the Office recommended against granting an exemption to pemlit 

'jailbreaking" of video game consoles because the proponents did not establish that there 

were adverse effects stemming from the prohibition - namely because the record revealed 

myriad alternatives to achieve the proponents' intended purpose which did not require 

circumvention. In the context of unlocking cell phones, the Copyright Office was again 

asked to consider the exemption that it had crafted in two of the previous four 

specific infringing acts); Columbia Pictures Indus., Inc. v. Fung, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 122661 (C.D. Cat. 

2009) (concluding that a file-sharing service that actively induced infringement was ineligible for the safe 

harbors because the safe harbors are intended to protect passive good faith conduct). 

79 See 17 U.S.C. § 1201. 

80 The Conference Report on the DMCA states: 

[Tjhe detennination will be made in a rulcmaking proceeding on the record. It is the 

intention of the conferees lhat, as is typical with other rulemaking under title 17. and in 

recognition ofllle expertise oftho Copyright Office, the Register of Copyrights will 

conduct the mlcmaking, including providing nolice of the rulemaking, seeking comments 

from the public, consnlting with the Assistant Secrctmy for Communications and 

Infonnatiun oflhe Deparbncnt of Commerce and any other agencies that arc deemed 

appropriate, and recommending final regulations in the report to the Librarian. 

H.R. REP. No. lO5-796 at 64 (1998); see also hHp:llwww.copyright.gov!l201. 

" H.R. REP. No. 105-551, Pt. 2, at 36 (1998). 

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25 

mlemakings. It concluded that the exemption should contmue for "legacy" phones, i.e., 

phones already purchased by consumers on or before JanuaIY 26, 2013, but was wlable to 

extend the recommendation to new phones in light of tbe evidentialY record, which 

demonstrated that carriers wcre alTering unlocked cell phones in the marketplace, and 

that consumers could therefore choose to purchase them over the next three years 82 

While the rulemaking process is necessarily narrow, it sits at a dynaIllic intersection of 

technology, emerging markets, the protection of intellectual property, fair use, and other 

nonfringing activities. It therefore often serves as a barometer for policy concerns aJld 

policy action beyond the confines ofthe statute. 83 

Digital First Sale 

The doctrine of first sale has been a part of the copyright law for more than one 

hundred years, but it could benefit from congressional attention at (his time, at Jeast with 

respect to digital copies but also possibly with respect to the importation and exportation 

of physical copics in certain circumstances. First sale is rooted in the common law rule 

against restraints on the alienation of tangible property and is codified in section 109 of 

the 1976 Act. It provides that "the owner of a particular copy or phonorecord lawfully 

made under this title, or any person authorized by such owner, is entitled, without the 

authority of the copyri~ht owner, to sell or othef\lVise dispose of the possession ofthat 

copy or phonorecord." 4 

As for its role in the digital realm, the Copyright Office conducted an early study 

for Congress in 200 1.85 In part, the Office addressed the question of whether the first sale 

doctrine should be modified to allow users to transmit digital copies of creative works 

without the consent of copyrigbt owners. At that time, the Office recommended against 

doing so, noting that transmission of works interfered with the copyright owners' control, 

82 See U.S. COPYRIGHT OFFICE, SECTION 1201 RULEM,~KING; FIFTH TRIENNIAL PROCEEDING TO DETERMINE 

EXEMPTlONS TO THE PROHIBITION ON ClRCUMVENTlON, RECOMMENDATION OF THE REGlSTER OF 

COPYRIGHTS, at 45-47, 79 (Oel. 2012) ("RECOMMENDATION OF THE REGISTER OF COPYRIGHTS"), available 

at http://\\iWw.copyright.govIl20112012!Section_120 1_ Rulemaking_20 12_ Recommendation,pdf. 

R3 See, e,g., Official White House Response, 11', Time to Legalize Cell Phone Unlocking (March 4,2013), 

available at httrs:11petitions.whilehouse.gov/response/its-time-legalize-cell-phone-unlockil1g; and 

Statement from the Library of Congress (March 4, availahle at 

http://www.loc,govltoday/pr/2013/13-041.html. As writing, several bills are pending. The 

Copyright Office has also from time to time noted other issues of public policy in the context anhe 

rulemaking analysis, including mosl recently the need to update provisions for persons who are blind or 

have other print disabilities or for security research or preservation. See. e.g" RECOMMENDATION OF THE 

REGISTER or COP¥RrGIITS, supra note 82 at 24, 

84 17 U.S.c. § 109(a). There are also some issues in the physical world involving importation, geographical 

licensing, and the scgl!lentation ofintcmational markels, In Kirlsaeng v. John Wi/ey & SOilS, 654 F.3d 210 

(2d Clf. 2011), now before the Supreme Court, the Second Circuit held that a U.S. publisher can prevent an 

importer from bringing foreign-made textbooks into the United States tor resale in this country. Some 

stakeholders, including libraries, charities, and commercial resellers have suggested they would benetit 

from greater certainty in this area (regardless of how the Supreme Court rules in Kirtsaeng). 

"' See SECTION 104 REPORT, supra nOle 34. 

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26 

but acknowledged that the issues may require further consideration at some point in the 

future. 86 The report explained: 

In order to recommend a change in the law, there should be 

a demonstrated need for the change that outweighs the 

negative aspects of the proposal. The Copyright Office 

does not believe that this is the case with the proposal to 

expand the scope of section 109 to include digital 

transmissions. The time may come when Congress may 

wish to address these concerns should they materialize.87 

More than a decade later, the doctrine of first sale may be difticult to rationalize 

in the digital context, but Congress nonetheless could choose to review it. On the one 

hand, Congress may believe that in a digital marketpJace, the copyright owner should 

control aU copies of his work, particularly because digital copies are perfect copies (not 

dog-eared copies of lesser value) or because in online commerce the migration from the 

sale of copies to the proffering of licenses has negated the issue. On the other hand, 

Congress may find that the general principle of first sale has ongoing merit in the digital 

age and can be adequately policed through technology - for example, measures that 

would prevent or destroy duplicative copies. Or, more simply, Congress may not want a 

copyright law where everything is licensed and nothing is owned. 

Exceptions and Limitations 

There are many discussions to be had about exceptions and limitations and their 

place in the ncxt great copyright act These include updating baseline standards for 

libraries and archives, crafting a digital age Chafee Amendment (for print disabilities), 

addressing the ecosystem of higher education institutions and markets, and possibly 

considering clarity in personal use activities. These issues should be viewed as 

complements to the fair use provision. 88 

The Copyright Office has been focused on library exceptions :lor several years, 

and its work on orphan works generated several hearings in past sessions of Congress and 

ongoing interest in the intellectual propeJty community.89 These issues are the subjects 

of ongoing public inquiries, symposia, and recommendations. Likewise, the question of 

special provisions for persons who are blind or have other print disabilities has been front 

86 See id. at 73. 

" JeI. at xx. 

88 Section !08(f)( 4) includes an express savings clause for fair use, stating that "[n]othing in this section .. 

in any way affects the right offair use as provided by section 107." 

89 See Letter from David J. Kappos. Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property, to MariaA. 

Pallante, Register of Copyrights (Jan. 2013) (expressing his support for the "work that the U.S. Copyright 

omce is doing to examine the problem of orphan works" and noting that "it is in the leadership interests of 

the United States to explore solutions"), to be reprinted in U.S. COPYRIGHT OFFICE, ORPHAN WORKS 

AI'AJ.YSIS, Part n (forthcoming 2013), 

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27 

and center over the past few yr.:ars, including in Geneva, in the courts, in the 1201 

rulemaking, and in a government study, and is ripe for review. 90 

Higher education activities could also benefit from congressional direction. As I 

noted in my introduction, Congress deferred the option of a general education exception 

in 1976. However, it did r.:nact a special exception for distance education in 2002,9 

following a study from the Copyright Office,92 Unfortunately, the complexity of the 

provision, as enacted, has largely undennined its usefulness in the eyes of many 

educators, Congressional review of higher education - which is so dynamic - would be 

beneficial, espedaUy because the legal framework must ultimately support and encourage 

a variety of copyright objectives, including: markets that produce quality educational 

materials; affordable licensing schemes; open source materials; the reasonable 

application of tair use; Iihrary exceptions; academic freedom, including the freedom of 

faculty to disclaim copyrigb( in their own works; and formats that are accessible to 

persons with print disabilities. 

Licensing 

That hrings me to licensing. Congress is aware that the development of newer 

and more efficient licensing models is essential to the digital marketplace and the many 

submarkets that comprise it. Some of this does not require legislation and should merely 

be encouraged, i,e, by reviewing the growth of direct licensing, microlicensing, voluntary 

collective licensing, and private and public registries. 93 In other instances, Congress may 

need to consider legislating new fom1s of licensing regimes as appropriate, for example, 

by updating or in some cases repealing compulsory licenses or perhaps enacting extended 

collective licensing models,94 

90 See RECOMMENDATION OF THE REGISTER OF COPYRIGHTS, supra nole 82, at 16; SCCR 25/2/Rev (Fcb, 

22,2013), Draft Text of an Intcl11,tionallnstrumentiTreaty on Limitations and Exceptions for Visually 

Impaired Persons/Persons with Print Disabilities, available at 

hllp:llwww,wipo.int/cdocslmdocs/copyrightlen/scc.r_25/secr _25 _2Jev,doc (tcxt of draft instrument 

CUtTently in negotiation at the World Intellcctual Property Organization); Report of the Advisory 

Commission on Accessible Instructional Materials in Postsecondary Education for Students with 

Disabilities (December 2011), available at www2,cd,gov/aboutlbdscommilist/aimimeeting/aim-report,doc, 

91 See 17 U,S,C. § IlO(2), 

92 See U,S, COPYRIGflT OFFICE, REPORT ON COPYRIGHT AND DISTANCE EDUCATION (1999), available at 

http://v.viw,copyrighl.govireports/dC_'l'rt,pdf. 

9] In 2011, the Copyright Office. at the direction of Congress, explored in public hearings whether, alter 

more than thirty-five years of experience with statutory licenses facilitating the retransmission of broad cas I 

signals by "able and satellite providers, the time had come to eliminate the licenses in favor of one or more 

marketplace licensing mechanisms. The Office concluded that, while business models based on 

sublicensing, collective licensing, and/or direct licenSing may be relatively undt:veloped in this context, 

(hey are feasible alternatives to secure the public performance rights necessary to retransmit copyrighted 

content in most instances, See SECTION 302 REPORT, supra note 36. 

94 Extended collective licensing would reqnire Congress to enact a framework by which works are made 

available for cerlain purposes without the need for case by case or prior pemlission, but in which 

representatives of the various stakeholder negotiate fees, mechanisms for opting out, and other key terms, 

For more information, see MASS DIGITIZATlON REPORT, supra note 38, 

19 
28 

Music reform is a particularly important licensing topic. The mechanical license 

for musical works - over a century old and currently embodied in section 115 of the Act 

- was established by Congress out of a CODcem that a single entity might monopolize the 

piano roll market by buying up exclusive rights. Over time, this compulsory license -

with its government-established rate - has become deeply embedded in the music 

industry. In the deliberations leading to the adoption of the 1976 Act, then-Register 

Kaminstcin suggested that monopoly was no longer much of a concern and the license 

should perhaps be repealed.95 But music publishers did not ultimately pursue that 

possibility (opting instead for an adjustment to the two-cent rate to two and furecquarters), and the license remains with us today. 

Although amended in 1995 to clarify that it covers digital phonorecord deliveries 

as well as physical formats, the basic song-by-song licensing mechanism of the 

mechanical license has remained unchanged for over one hundred years. But because 

digital service providers have varying business models ranging from on-demand 

streaming services to pernlanent downloads to music bundled with other products, the 

rates adopted under section 115 have become increasingly complex. In recent years, 

some music publishers -- especially larger ones are choosing to license their 

reproduction and distribution rights, and even their public perforn1ance rights, directly to 

digital services instead of through third-party administrators such as The Harry Fox 

Agency, ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC. Meanwhile music services tell us that it is essential 

to have the full repertoire of musical works available to be a viable player in the digital 

marketplace. 96 

In 2006, Congress considered legislation, thc Section lIS Reform Act (or 

"SIRA"), that would have changed the section 115 licensing structure to a blanket-style 

system for digital uses, but it was not enacted. It may be time for Congress to take 

another look. 

Congress is already taking another look at section 114, the statutory licensing 

provisions for webcasters, satellite radio, and others seeking to engage in the digital 

perfonnance of sound recordings.97 As the November 2012 hearing before the House 

95 See U.S. COPYRIGHT OFFICE, REPORT OF THE REGISTER OF COPYRIGHTS ON TIlE GENERAL REVISION OF 

TilE U.S, COPYRIGIlTLAW, at 32-36 (1961), avai/able al 

http://www.copyright.gov/reports/annual/archivelar-1961.pdf. 

'" Even this abbreviated overview points to some significant questions about the section 115 license in the 

digital age. The questions span a wide range of issues, from the workability ofa song-by-song licensing 

framework to the desirability of one-stop licensing options for both reproduction and public perfonnance, 

among many others. See Hearing B~l(}re the Subcomm. on Intellectual Property of the S. COlr"n. on the 

Judiciary, 109th Congo (2005) (statement of Marybeth Peters, Register of Copyrights); Hearing Before the 

Subcomm. on Courts. the Internet, alld Intellectual Property of the H. Comm. on the Judiciary, 109t11 Congo 

(2005) (statement of Marybeth Peters, Register of Copyrights). 

97 See Internet Radio Fairness Act oflOl2 ("IRFA"), H.R. 6480, 112th Congo (2012). Proponents oflRFA 

argue that Internet radio is disadvantaged under the curren! Copyright Royalty Board system and urge (hat 

what they perceive as the more flexible factors set forth in 17 U.S,C. § 8UI(b) for satellite radio and othl'r 

digital users be substituted for the "willing buyer/willing seller" standard cunently applicable to 

webeasters. The legislation has drawn substantial opposition, including from the artist community, who 

20 
29 

Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition and the Intemet made abundantly 

clear, the rate setting concerns of the webcasting community cannot be viewed in 

isolation; they are tied to the overall statutory licensing structure and even the scope of 

exclusive rights afforded for sound recordings under the Copyright Act. 

To make a long story short, Congress could make a real difference regarding 

gridlock in the music marketplace and viewing the issues comprehensively, in the context 

of the next great copyright act, may be most productive. 

Deposits for the Library 0,( Congress 

The Library of Congress receives books, films, music, and other copyright 

deposits through two separate provisions of the Copyright Act: 1) section 407 deposits, 

which are the works copyright owners submit to the Copyright Office for purposes of 

copyright registration; and 2) section 408 deposits, which are those that the copyright 

owners of published works are required to submit for the national collectiol1 within three 

months ofpublicatioll and which the Copyright Office has legal authority to demand in 

instances of nOll compliance. The provisions complement each other and both should 

remain in some fornl in the next great copyright act. They may, however, require some 

fresh thinking, particularly as to the evolving state of the Library'S collection needs. 

With respect to the registration system, the Library enjoys a unique place in the 

copyright law, as it has been both the custodian and a key beneficiary of the system since 

1870.98 However, its ability to evolve in the 21 st century is directly tied to its ability to 

co lIeet and preserve a variety of content, including digital content. In the past, in some 

instances, the Copyright Office was able to align the format requirements for copyright 

deposits with the specific needs of the Library. For example, under the discretionary 

authority granted to the Register of Copyrights, the Office created special group options 

for newspapers in 1992, making it easier for newspapers to register bnt also facilitating 

the formats the Library desired for preservation (in this examplc microfilm) and would 

have had to otherwise purchase.99 

As a matter of law, copyright registration predates the Library, of course, and has 

other longstanding functions. Registration is prima facie evidence of copyrightability 

and copyright ov{nership, a condition of the availability of statutory damages, and a 

catalyst for the public record of copyright information. The authoritative determination 

of copyrightability provides guidance to the courts in a number of areas, including 

questions related to the scope of protection and any limitations or presumptions reflected 

have emphasized the lack of u terrestrial performance right for radio. Both sides, in other words, arc 

arguing for parity in the royalty rate structure across different platforms. 

98 Congress transferred responsibility for regislration to the Library in 1870, following eighty years in the 

district courts, and in doing so turned copyright deposits into a national collection. The Copyright Office 

was created within the Library in 1897, Jeading to the appointment of Thorvald Solberg as Register. 

99 Activities like this largely are carried out by the Register in accordance with lhe statute, except in 

instances where regulations are finally promulgated. in which case the Librarian, as head ofllle agency for 

purposes ofthe Constitution and reflected in the statutory framework, signs the final rule. See 17 U.S.C. § 

702. 

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30 

in the certiflcate. Registration certificates are frequently required by businesses to 

conclude intellectual property transactions, secure insurance policies, and settle matters 

oflitigation, not only within the United States but also in deal making and litigation 

around the globe. It therefore must be evaluated broadly, against the objectives of the 

greater copyright law. III the words of one study group, while important, "[Ilibrary 

acquisitions policy should not drive copyright registration policy."IOO 

In fact, as the Library seeks to acquire and preserve websites, electronic serials, 

and the other kinds of 21 st century authorship, registration may not be enough of a too1. 

Instead, the mandatory deposit provisions may need to playa greater role generally, and 

may need granular adjustments to make them viable in the digital environment. For 

example, many digital works may not be "published" within the meaning of the "best 

edition" requirements of cun-ent law, placing them outside the parameters of the 

mandatory deposit provisions. It is also true that the fonnats required by the Library may 

not be the formats that actually are published by the copyright owner, and it is further 

true that the Library's collection of digital deposits may require clearer rules regarding 

the security of files and the conditions for making them available. In any event, the next 

great copyright act should ensure that the mandatory deposit provisions are flexible 

enough to support the needs of the national collection. 

Thinking a Little More Boldly 

As with previous revisions, Congress may need to apply fresh eyes to the next 

great copyright act to ensure that the copyright law remains functional, credible, and 

relevant for the future. This does not require it to abandon core principles of the 

copyright system, but it may require some recalibrations as appropriate and workable in 

the greater legal framework. 

Off~elting Copyright Term 

Copyright term is a global issue and any discussion of U.S. ternl therefore should 

acknowledge international norms. Nonetheless, the cun-ent length of the term - the life 

of the autllOl" plus seventy years in most circumstances - is long and the length has 

consequences. WI One has to assume that Eldred v. Ashcrojil02 is the last word as to 

whether life-plus-seventy is a constitutionally permissible term, however, from a policy 

perspective that is no longer the relevant qnestion. The question now is how to make the 

long term more functional. 

100 ACCORD REPORT, supra nole 75. 

101 17 U.S.C. § 302 (setting forth general term, including a term for works made for hire and pseudonymous 

and anonymous works of ninety-five years from the year of its lIrst publication, or a term of 120 years from 

the year of its creation, whichever expires tirst). An informal count shows that approximately eighty 

countries (and probably more) have adopted life plus years as Ihe standard for works of authors and 

it is incorporated in 17 trce trade agreements of the United 

102 537 U.S. 186 (2003). 

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31 

The Copyright Office is interested in pragmatic solutions in the next great 

copyright act. Thus the Office's 2006 orphan works proposal suggested limiting 

remedies when copyri¥ht owners are unlocatahle - effectively freeing many works from 

the long tail oftime. lO- Similarly, the Office appreciates section 1 08(h), which allows 

libraries and archives to copy, distribute, display, or perform any published work in its 

last twenty years of protection, for purposes of preservation, scholarship, or research. Of 

course, other limitations on the law, including fair use, effectively offset term as well, 

albeit in Iimitcd circumstances. 

Perhaps the next great copyright act could take a new approach to term, not for 

the purpose of amending it downward, hut for the purpose of injecting some balance into 

the equation. More specifically, perhaps the law could shift the burden ofthe last twenty 

years from the user to the copyright owner, so that at leas! in some instances, copyright 

owners would have to asselt their continued interest in exploiting the work by registering 

with tbe Copyright Office in a timely manner. to4 And if they did not, the works would 

enter thc public domain. !Os 

Making Roomjor Opt Outs 

The United States has long had opt-in licensing schemes that permit authors to 

license their exclusive rights by voluntarily opting into a collective management 

organization. Thus, we have the examples of ASCAP, BMI,106 and SESAC in the music 

industry and the Copyright Clearance Center in the literary space. In the words of Ol1e 

professor, speaking herc at Columbia just a couple of years ago, collective management 

organizations can be attractive because they "can put [the] Humpty Dumpty of rights 

back together again by allowing users to obtain all the rights necessary for a pruticular 

use.,,107 

10] See ORPHAN WORKS REPORT, supra note 35. 

104 As an aside, if U.S. history with respect to renewal registration of copyright is any indication, very few 

copyright owners - in this contcxt, heirs and successors in interest not the author herself - will actually do 

so. See U.s. COPYRIGHT OFFICE, STUDY No. 31 at 220, supra note 10. We believe further consideration of 

this proposal (and the various implementation issues il raises) would serve to improve the functioning of 

our copyright system. 

105 This should not, as far as I can sec, present insurmountable problems under international law. The 

Berne Convention requires a minimum term of life-plus-fifty years, defers to member slates as to the 

treatment of their own citizens, and provides the term of protection of the country of origin for the works of 

foreign nationals. See Berne Convention, Art. 7. At the same time, copyright owners who choose to assert 

their continued interests would have the full benefit of the additional twenty years, subject to the 

requirement of additi()nal registration" 

100 Some collective management frameworks raise competition issues that would need to he reviewed and 

reconciled if collective licensing is part of the answer for consumers and market gridlock in the digital age. 

For example, both ASCAP and BMl operate under consent decrees with the U.S. Department of.lustiee 

designed to protect licensees from price discrimination or other amicompetitive behavior. See United 

Stales v. Am. Soc yo/Composers, Authors alld Publishers, 2001 U$ Dist. LEXIS 23707, 2001-2 Trade 

Cas. (CCH) '1i 73,474 (S"D.N.Y. 2001); United Stales v. Broadcas! Music, Inc., 1994 U.S. Dis!. LEXIS 

21476,1996-1 Trade Cas. (CCH) ,171,378 (S.D.N.Y. (994). 

107 Daniel J. Gervais, Keynote: The Land,cape a/Collective Management Schemes, 34 COLUM. lL. & 

ARTS 591,599 (2011); see also MASS DIGITIZATION REPORT, supra note 38. 

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32 

By contrast, opt-out systems reverse the general principle of copyright law that 

copyrighted works should be reproduced or disseminated only with the prior approval of 

the copyright owner. It has become clear, however, that opt-out systems might serve the 

objectives of copyright law in some compelling circumstances if appropriately tailored 

and fairly administered, and if created with oversight from Congress. One potential optout system is a form of licensing known as extended collective licensing. Extended 

collective licensing allows representatives of copyright owners and users to mutually 

agrce to negotiate on a collective basis and then to negotiate temlS that are binding on all 

members of the group by operation oflaw. It has the potential to provide certainty for 

users and remuneration for copyright owners (for example in mass digitization activities) 

but would provide some control to copyright owners wanting to opt out of the 

arrangement. 

Courts have affirmed the fact that fundamental changes like this are the domain of 

Congress because Congress is designed to weigh the equities of the public interest and to 

craft broadly applicable policies. A court, by contrast, must apply thc facts and law as it 

finds them. This is why the Supreme Court noted in Eldred v. Ashcr()ft that "it is 

generally for Congress, not the courts, to decide how best to pursue the Copyright 

Clause's objectives,,,I08 and why Judge Chin, in rejecting the proposed settlement 

between Google and a class of authors and publishers, said that "the establishment of a 

mechanism for exploiting unclaimed books is a matter morc suited for Congress" than the 

courts. 109 Among the questions Congress could consider are what kinds of uses might 

benefit from opt-out regimes (e.g., certain kinds of uses in higher education, certain kinds 

of library access), and what the actual terms and opt-out mechanisms should entaiL 110 

Making the Law More Accessible 

Finally, as noted earlier, the copyright law has become progressively unreadable 

during the very time it has become increasingly pervasive. 

When the Copyright Act was enacted, it contained seventy-three sections and the 

entire statute was fifty-seven pages long. Today, it contains 137 sections and is 280 

pages long, nearJy five times the size of the original. As former Regi ster M arybeth Peters 

observed in 2007, the current "copyright law reads like the tax code, and there are 

sections that are incomprehensible to most people and difficult to me."lll 

This is not merely a paradox; it is damaging to the mk of law.J 12 The next great 

copyright act should be as accessible as possible. 

'0' 537 U.S. 186,212 (2003). 

109 Authors Guild v. Google Inc., 770 F. Supp. 2d 666, 677 (S.D.NY. 2011). 

110 See generall), MASS DIGlTIZATlON REPORT, supra note 38. 

III Rob Pcgoraro, Debating the Fulure of Music, WASH. POST (Sept. 18,2007), available al 

http://voices.washingtonposl.comifasterforward/2007/09idebating_the _future_oJ"... music.html. 

112 The Scction 108 Study Group found that many practitioners are confused by the hask organization of 

(he library exception. See THE SECTION J 08 STUDY GROUP REPORT at ix-x, 93-94 (2008), The same is true 

24 
33 

IV. THE POLICY PROCESS 

As Congress considers copyright revision, its primary challenge will be keeping 

the public interest in the forefront of its thoughts, including how to define the public 

interest and who may speak for it. Any number of organizations may feci justified in this 

role, and on many issues there may in fact he many voices, but there is no singular parly 

or proxy. 

Because there are many more stakeholders than in previous revisions, it will be 

both harder and easier for Congress to weigh the issues. Why revision will be difficult is 

obvious. Not since the industrial revolution has there been a force like the Internet, and it 

has changed both the creation and dissemination of authorship. The copyright world, 

which once had predictable and even pristine demarcations, has morphcd dramatically. 1 1] 

It is also difficult to separate the medium from the message. As one journalist has 

observed, "[tJecimolof,'Y executives like to suggest that media companies are selling 

buggy whips in the age of the automobile, but that doesn't hold up ... So far, content 

generated by online businesses can't compete with that from traditional media 

companies.,,1l4 

And then there is the common refrain that information wants to be free. Free 

information is good for the lntcmd and serves legitimate and important free speech 

principles. But in order to have a robust knowledge economy, we need content that is 

both professional and informal; we need content that consists of information, 

commentary, and entertainment, or sometimes all ofthesc combined into one; and we 

need content that is licensed, content that is free, or in some cases, content that is licensed 

for free. 

Although challenging, it is possible that Congress may actually find a world order 

like this to be more manageable in the long mn. ]fthe lines of special interests have 

blurred, if many actors have intelTelated objectives, if many revenue models are 

decentralized, and if many advocacy or consumer groups are tied to one special interest 

or another, then the sum of these concerns may well approximate the greater goals of 

copyright law. 

in the world of musical works and compulsory licenses, which arc supposed to replace a dysfunctional 

market, bnlnol at the expense of usability. Sections 114 and 115 are highly technical and confusing: new 

business entrants and even established uscrs struggle with interpreting the language, which is perhaps 

appropriatciy the subject of criticism. And then there is the Kil'isaeng case, in which the Supreme Court 

has been asked to interpret the phrase "lawfully made under this title" - five words tbat appear in five 

different sections of the Copyright Act·· which have sparked intense debate over the first sale doctrine, 

importation, and geographical licensing. 

113 See Leyland Pit! el aI., Changing Channels: The Impact of the Internet on Distribution Strategy, 42 Bus, 

HORIZONS 19 (1999). 

114 ROBERT LEVINE, FREE RIDE: How DIGITAL PARASITES ARE DESTROY1NG THE CULTURE BUSIKESS, A?'olD 

How THE CULTURE BUSINESS CAN FIGHT BACK 9 (2012). 

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34 

Of course, government actors also have equities in copyright law and would be 

essential to the deliberation process of a general revision. As discussed above, the 

Copyright Office has a long history and deep expertise in the copyright law, has a direct 

advisory relationship with Congress, and has responsibilities for administering many 

copyright provisions. I IS The Oft1ce also interacts with many other agencies on a daily 

basis, which in turn have specific perspectives and statutory roles. This is how U.S. 

intellectual property policy works at the government level, and it is another reflection of 

the public interest. I 10 

I would like to leave thc topic of process by stating something that I hope is 

uncontrovcrsial. The issues of authors are intertwined with the interests of the public. As 

the first beneficiaries of the copyright law, authors are not a counterweight to the public 

interest but are instead at the very center of the equation. In the words of the Supreme 

Court, "[ t]he immediate effect of our copyright law is to secure a fair rerum for an 

'author's' creative labor. But the ultimate aim is, by this incentive, to stimulate altistie 

creativity for the general public good."! 17 

Congress has a duty to keep authors in its mind's eye, including songwriters, book 

authors, filmmakers, photographers, and visual artists. This is because "[a] rich culture 

demands contributions from authors and artists who devote thousands of hours to a work 

and a lifetime to their craft. "I! S A law that does not provide for authors would be 

illogical- hardly a copyright law at all. And it would not deserve the respect of the 

public. 

This does not mean thaI all authors want the identical legal treatment. On the 

contrary, the diversity of authorship is part ofthe frill when it comes to copyright Jaw and 

the law should be accommodating. For example, some authors prefer receiving credit to 

receiving payment, and some embrace the philosophy and methodology of Creative 

Commons, 119 where authors may provide advance permission to users or even divest 

themselves of rights. The law must be flexible enough to accommodate these decisions. 

"' See 17 U.S.C. § 70l. 

I i6 The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office conducted a "listening tour" in 2008 and, with the greater 

Department of Commerce, is preparing a comprehensive discussion document (a green papcr) on copyright 

issues in the digital environment. The National Academy of Sciences is preparing a report that examines 

research methodology in the context of copyright policy, See National Academy of Sciences. Board on 

Science, Technology, and Economic Policy (STEP), The Impact of Copyright Policy on Innovation in the 

Digital Era, project description available at 

hltp:l/sites.nationalacademies.org/PGA/sreplcopyrightpolicylindcx.htm. The Department of Justice, the 

State Department, the Intellectual Properly Enforcement Coordinator and other parts ofthe White Honse, 

and the Office oflhe United States Trade Representative also interact with the copyright system and the 

Copyright Office in one way or another and should be consu lied. 

117 Twentieth Century Music CO/P, v. Aiken, 422 US 15 J, 156 (1975). 

118 Scott Turow, Paul Aiken, and James Shapiro, Would the Bard Have Survived the Web?, N,Y. TIMES at 

A29 (Feb. 14,2012), 

119 See http://crealivecommons,orgio 

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35 

V. EVOLUnON OF THE COPYRIGHT OFFICE 

Before I conclude, I would like to tum back to the Copyright Office itself. The 

Office has been at the epicenter of both the policy and the administration of copyright 

law since 1897 by virtue of its statutory duties, its close relationship with Congress, and 

its placement and origins in the national library. The Office has grown organically, 

meaning its functions today were no more planned or imaginable at tbe tum of the 20th 

century than was the explosion of the copyright system itself. Congress simply handed 

the Office things over time, both by design and by default. 

The expertise ofthe Office is reflected in countless contributions over the last 

hundred years, including official studies, congressional hearings, treaty negotiations, 

trade agreements, policy recommendations, and legal interpretations, not to mention in 

the Copyright Act and its legislative history and in opinions of the courts. 

Of course there is always more to do, and although Congress has long relied upon 

the ex~crtise of the Copyright Office, it has been slow to increase the Office's reb'Uiatory 

role. 12 In fact, from 1897 to 1998, the role was largely, though not entirely, 

administrative, meaning most fq,,'l.tlations addressed administrative questions, i.e., rules 

pertaining to the registration process, the collection of fees, and the administration of 

certain aspects of compulsory licenses.121 As more than one professor has noted, the 

Office has had very little opportunity to apply its expertise, leading Congress to wlite too 

much detail into the code on matters that are constantly changing, such as economic 

conditions and technology. 122 

Evolving the Copyright Office should be a major goal of the next great copyright 

act. In short, it is difficult to see how a 21't centruy copyright law could function well 

without a 21 st century agency. 123 To the extent patent law offers any guidance, it is 

120 See Terry Hart, Copyright Reform Step Zero, 19 INFO. AND COMMN'S TECH. L. (2010) (noting that 

copyright taw will continue to become increasingly unable to keep up with technological and other 

challenges while also becoming increasingly resistant to reform efforts). 

12' Some aspects of regulating compulsory licenses and registration have substantive impact, e.g provisions 

relating to the application of section 115 to online streaming. See CompulsOl)" License for Making and 

Distributing Phonorecords, Including Digital PhoJlorecord Deliveries, 73 Fed. Reg. 66,173 (Nov. 7, 2008). 

122 See Joseph Liu, RegulalOlY Copyright, 83 N.C.L. REV. 87, 93, 95-99 (2004) (suggesting that one ofthe 

reasons copyright provisions became obsolete is the lack ofregulatory power in the Copyright OHice); see 

also Elizabeth Townsend Gard, Convef"aliof1s with Renowned Professors on the Fulure of Copyright, 12 

TUL.T. TECH. & lNULL. PROP. 35. 65 (Fall 2009) (noting lhat "the Copyright Office is a ralher unique 

entity because historically, il has not had much rulemaking or regulatory power") (quoting Professor Diane 

Zimmerman). 

123 The Coustitution penni!,; Congress 10 delegate certain activities to agencies under certain circumstances, 

provided that the delegation is not an end lUn around the distinct roles of the legislative and executive 

branches when it comes to deliberating upon and signing new laws. As Justice Hlaekmun explained: 

[IJn OUT increasingly complex sociely, replete with ever-changing and more technical 

problems, Congress simply cannot do its job absent an ability to delegate power under 

broad general directives .... Accordingly, this Court has deemed it constitutionally 

sufficient if Congress clearly delineates the general policy, the public agency which is to 

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36 

notable that the importance ofthe legal and business functions of the U.S. Patent and 

Trademark Office have been acknowledged over time, most recently througb the 

amendments of the America Invents Act of2011, 124 

In truth, many constituents want the Copyright Office to do better the things it 

already does, and to do a host of new things to hclp make the copyright law more 

functionaLJ2j For example, some people would like the Office to administer enforcement 

proceedings (such as a small copyright claims tribunal), offer arbitration or mediation 

services to resolve questions of law or fact (for example, where rights are murky or a 

license is unclear), issue advisory opinions (for example, on questions of fair use), 126 and 

engage in educational activities (like promulgating best practices or providing copyright 

guidance to teachers). The Office might also playa role in ensuring the governance or 

transparency of critical 21 ,t century actors, such as content registries or collective 

licensing organizations. 

There are some practical obstacles. Although migrating the Copyright Office to 

the next generation of services is a primary focus of Office staff at this time,127 mueh will 

depend on technical capacity and resources. 128 Moreover, not everyone is optimistic 

apply it, and the boundaries of this delegated authority. 

Mistretta v. United States, 488 U.S. 361, 372-73,378 (1989) (internal citation omitted), The Justices have 

made it clear that in applying such authority, an agency may "exercise judgment on matters of policy," 

including "the determination of facts and the inferences to be drawn from them in the light of the statutory 

standards" as well as "the formulation of subsidiary administralive policy within the prescribed statutory 

framework." ld. at 378-79 (internal citation omitted); see also Intercollegiate Broadcasting System, inc, v. 

Copyright Royalty Board, 684 F.3d 1332 (D.C. Cir, 20 (2), petition for cat, filed (Jan. 25, 2013) 

(concluding that the Library "is a freestanding entity that clearly meets the definition of 'Department'" for 

purposes of the Appointments Clause and that the Library and the Copyright Royalty Board have the power 

to promulgate copyright regulations, to apply the statute to affected parties, and to set rates and terms on a 

case by case basis), 

124 Por example, the statute authorizes the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to deposit patent and 

trademark fees in excess of its allnual appropriations into a reserve fund, from which the Office may access 

and spend said flOes as needed to run its operations, irrespective of its annual appropriations from Congress, 

See Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, 112 Pub, L. No. 29 (20ll). 

'" See, e,g., Public Knowledge, A Copyright Olliee for the 21st CentulY: Recommendations to the New 

Register of Copyrights (Dec, 2(10), available at 

http://'''W'>v . publicknowlcdge.org/fJles/ docsl ACopyrightOfficeforthe21 stCentmy. pdf. 

126 Some communities have begun 10 create and adopt fair use practices independently. See. e.g., American 

Universit'J, Center for Social Media, h!tp:ilwww.center!orsocialmedia.org/fair-use, 

127 The Offlce is in the process of evaluating potential improvements and tcchnical enhancements to the 

information technology platforms that support its registration ond recordation functions, including its online 

registration system. The Office has identified a number of key focus areas, including improved system 

navigation and user interface, application of mobile technologies, improved process tracking, enhanced 

search and bulk data transfer (often called "business-to-business" or "systcm-to-system") 

See U.S. Copyright Office. Notice oflnquiry (forthcoming March 2013), 

'28 As an agency that supports bOlh the marketplace and the nation's cultural heritage, the Copyright Office 

is a bargain, However, it will need more resources to support the needs of the 21" century, Currently, twothirds ofthe Office's budge!, less than $40 million dollars, comes directly from spending authority, i.e., 

congressional approval to spend the fees the Office collects for registration and other services for copyright 

28 
37 

about the future of the Copyright Offlcc. As recently as 2010, a group known as the 

Copyright Principles Project discussed the Offlce in meetings it held in Berkeley. They 

wrote: 

The infOlTI1ation that the Office currently collecls and 

administers as part of the registration system is the kind 

that everyone expects to be accessible through something 

Iikc a simple web search. More importantly, transactions 

involving copyrighted works often take place in the same 

hyper-efficient environment, and the parties to those 

transactions require access to copyright infomlation at a 

speed and in a fonnat that matches that ef1iciency. While 

the Office has observed and anticipated these developments 

and moved many of its functions and services online, the 

reality is that the functionality of the registry remains 

woefully behind what leading-edge search and database 

technologies permit. 129 

The Copyright Office agrees that a 21 st century copyright law requires a 21 st century 

agency. 

VI. CONCLUSION 

It is a point of pride for the United States that our past great copyright laws have 

served the Nation so well. American experts are fond of pointing out that we have the 

most balanced copyright law in the world, as well as a robust environmeut of free 

expression and an equally robust copyright economy. DO 

owners. These revenues are nowhere near the revenues generated by the patent system, but they reflect the 

fact thai registration is optionaL One-third ofllle budget, approximately $15 to S18 million dollars, comes 

from appropriated monies, and helps fund public services that are for the benefit of the public at large -

for example the public records of copyright oVvTIcrship, expiratiun, and transfers. These appropriated 

dollars should be further reviewed against another public benefit, the hundreds of thousands of deposits 

provided to the LibralY's collection at a value of $30 million dollars a year. 

129 Pamela Samuelson et al., Copyright Principles Prc~iecl: Directionsfor Reform, 25 BERKELEY TECH. L.1. 

1175, 1203 (2010). The Project also queried whether registration should be decentralized ana delegated to 

a series of private sector registries, with the Copyright Office moving to a new role of setting standards, 

both lechnical and legal. 

1)0 See Stephen E. Siwek, International Intellectual Property Alliance, Copyright Industries in the U.S. 

Economy: The 20 II Report, at 4 (Nov. 2, 2011) (repOlting that core copyright industries conlributed 

$1.627 trillion to the U.S. economy in 2010, which accounted for I LlO% oftotal GDP), available 

at htip:!/www.iipa.com/pdf/20 11 CopyrightlndustriesReport.PDF; Thomas Rogers & Andrew Szamosszegi, 

Fair Usc in the U.S. Economy: Economic Contribution oflndustries Relying on Fair Usc, al6 (CClA 201/) 

(reporling that industries relying on fair usc contributed an average of $2.4 trillion to the U.S. economy in 

2009 and 2009, which accounted for approximately 17% oftotalU .S. GOP), available 

at htip:/!www.ccianet.org/CCIA/tiles!ccLibraryFilcsiFiJenameiOOOOO0000526/CCIAFairUseinthcL'SEconomy-2011.pdl' 

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38 

Still, no law is perfect. The 1976 Act, which was a fair and remarkable 

achievement by many accounts, did not come close to the bleeding edge of technology. 

When all was said and done, Barbara Ringer acknowledged the shortcomings of the new 

law, calling it "a good 1950 copyright Jaw." [3J "It may be resilient enough to serve the 

public intercst for some time to comc," she said, "[h]ut some of its inadequacies are 

already becoming apparent, and no prophet is needed to foretell the need for substantial 

restructuring of our copyright system before the end ofthi5 century.,,132 

Unfinished business may be difficult for policy experts but it is not always a 

terrible thing. In a framework as dynamic as copyright, it is not unreasonable and 

probably pmdent for Members of Congress to legislate carefully in response to 

technological hmovation rather than in real time. Congress needs to see the evolution of 

technology and related businesses with some objectivity, and to consider, as appropriate, 

the mIillgs and the fmstrations of the courts, hefore it can move forward. When it is 

ready to move, however, Congress should do so with both great deference to the 

principles ofthe past and great vision for the future. 

In closing, I would like to encourage Congress not only to think about copyright 

law but to think big. The next great copyright act is as exciting as it is possible. Most 

importantly, it is a matter of public interest. 

### 

131 Barbara Ringer, Authors' Rights in the Electronic Age: Beyond the Copyright Act of 1976, 1 Loy. L.A. 

ENT. LJ. 1,4 (1981). 

132 !d. 

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39 

Mr. COBLE. Madam Register, you will be rewarded. You beat the 

illuminating red light. Thank you for that. 

Folks, there is a vote on now. And we are going to depart to vote. 

We will stand in recess upon our return. 

[Recess.] 

Mr. COBLE. I will begin my questioning with the Register. And 

we will try to limit our questions to 5 minutes as well because of 

the schedule on the floor. There will be another imminent vote I 

am told. 

Thank you again, Madam Register, for your testimony. What do 

you mean, Madam Register, when you say that copyright law must 

serve the public interest? And how does one measure whether it 

does so? 

Ms. PALLANTE. I really appreciate that question, Mr. Coble. 

Copyright is ultimately about the public interest. And as I said in 

my opening remarks, James Madison said, the authors’ interests 

coincide with the interests of the public. In the office where I work, 

where everybody loves copyright more than anything else in the 

world, we sometimes get a little dismayed because we see the interests of authors being set up as a counterweight to the public interest and sometimes as an obstacle to the dissemination of knowledge. 

But the Constitution is very clear on this, that authors are part 

of the public interest equation and a means to creating, 

incentivizing, and disseminating knowledge. Trying to evaluate the 

public interest is a big challenge for us, and I am sure for you, because so many would like to speak for it. And so we like to go back 

to basics in our office and try to remember that although many of 

the media wars are about the profits or special interests of one 

intermediary or another, whether it is the tech sector or the content industry, ultimately if the law does not serve authors, it is not 

working and it also doesn’t deserve the respect of the public. 

Mr. COBLE. I thank you for that. 

You mentioned earlier that our copyright law is probably the best 

in the world, and I am glad to hear you say that. Our copyright 

law contains enforcement protections that are balanced with important exceptions and limitations. How does the American copyright 

system compare to others around the world in striking a balance? 

Ms. PALLANTE. Well, I think in terms of the balance to date, it 

is a model. Many look to it. But like other countries, our law is 

showing its age. And it won’t surprise you to know that many countries are therefore looking at revision, either because they are becoming global citizens and entering treaties, treaties that we are 

already members of, for example, or because like us, they are trying to apply digital age fact patterns to an aging statute. So I 

think, you know, if we are to be true to our leadership role, as we 

have always been in the copyright space, we should proceed in 

terms of what is good for this country. And I think, you know, we 

have always done a very good job, Congress has always done an exceptional job of balancing what the global situation requires and 

what are the unique American principles that need to be intertwined. 

One very easy example of that is fair use. Fair use for us is one 

of the safety valves for free expression. The Supreme Court has 
40 

confirmed that. Fair use is not a doctrine that you will see elsewhere in the world. 

Mr. COBLE. I thank you for that. 

I still have some time, but in the interest of time I want to recognize the gentleman from North Carolina. 

Mr. WATT. And Mr. Chairman, as has been my practice, especially since we are having a series of votes, some of my colleagues 

may not be able to come back after the votes, so I am going to defer 

to Ms. Chu to ask questions first. 

Mr. COBLE. Very well. Without objection. 

Ms. CHU. Thank you so much. 

Well, first let me ask about how the Copyright Act affects the 

music industry. I know that every time I hear music, I am hearing 

a performance of two copyrighted works, the musical composition 

written by songwriter and the sound recording made by reporting 

artists. Without both copyrighted works, composition and sound recording, the music just wouldn’t exist. So it seems to me when establishing royalty rates for the performances of musical compositions by web casters, the royalty rates paid for the performance of 

sound recordings would be directly relevant. However, I understand that the Copyright Act specifically prohibits the rate court 

that establishes performance royalties for songwriters from considering the rates paid to recording artists for the exact same Web 

casting performance. 

Ms. Pallante, what are your thoughts on having the rate court 

consider all relevant evidence, including royalties Web casters pay 

for sound recordings, when establishing royalty rates for performances of musical compositions? 

Ms. PALLANTE. That is a fantastic question, a very difficult question. And my first answer would be it is exactly the kind of question that compels me to think we need to put all those issues on 

the table and figure out what we need to make music work within 

the copyright framework. So, you know, on the one hand, we do not 

have a full public performance rate for sound recordings. We are 

quite alone in the world in that regard. And from a copyright policy 

perspective, it is indefensible. It is really indefensible. 

When you look at Internet radio, where royalties are paid, and 

the players that you want to encourage to come into that space, equity becomes a driving force. But from where we sit, we would like 

to figure out first what are the exclusive rights that artists, authors, and labels should have. And then, from there, figure out 

what part of that should be legislated, what part should be administrative, and what the guideposts should be to keep it flexible and 

nimble. 

Ms. CHU. Well, thank you for that. And I would like to also ask 

about the film industry, and the fact that it has found creative 

ways to protect copyrights while expanding access in this new digital age. These are the digital rights management tools that 

incentivize businesses to develop new and innovative models to distribute high-quality content across multiple forms, such as UltraViolet, which allows ownerships to be portable. So thanks to copyright protections, companies are encouraged to invest in these new 

online platforms and allow users to access content legitimately. 

And ultimately, they are also able to protect creative rights. 
41 

So Ms. Pallante, what are your thoughts about digital rights 

management tools and their role in fostering innovation for distributing high quality content across many platforms? 

Ms. PALLANTE. Uh-huh. Thank you for the question, Congresswoman. 

I think it is ultimately a balance, but there is no question that 

DRM, as you reference, is critical to the equation. It is a way of 

combining law and technology to protect the content that others 

have invested in. And the high level question is, who should have 

the right to reap the benefit of the investment, those who created 

it and invested in it, or others who have perhaps an interest in aggregating it and distributing it? And ultimately, exclusive rights 

cannot be absolute, but they have to be meaningful. And I think 

the job that is so difficult in this copyright policy world right now 

is trying to get that equation right. So how do you incentivize the 

market to continue to offer innovative products like you described? 

Because consumers want them and because we want content industries to adapt and evolve. On the other hand, if they are too slow, 

or if others can step into the space, what part of the law should 

just stop that and what part should strike a balance? 

Ms. CHU. And finally, let me ask about enforcement. A 2011 

study found that almost 25 percent of all Internet traffic had copyright infringement, and yet only a small number of these infringements have ever faced any consequences. With this massive ecosystem of obvious infringement on the Internet, it is obvious that 

we have to do a better job of enforcement. How can we improve the 

current law to better provide enforcement tools for copyright protection? 

Ms. PALLANTE. Well, thank you for raising enforcement. I don’t 

think we can have a conversation about a 21st century copyright 

law without talking about enforcement, although I think there are 

some that would prefer that that be left off the table. So again, exclusive rights just will not be meaningful if there is no way to enforce them. So that could be updating illegal streaming so that one 

can go after it with not just a misdemeanor but criminal penalties, 

just like the law says for reproduction and distribution. For smaller 

artists, it may be a small claims process of some sort where if the 

harm is worth $2,500, yes, Federal court is an option, but it is not 

really an option at an economic level. It just doesn’t really make 

sense. But for that artist, it might be everything to them to control 

that kind of use. 

So enforcement is critical. I think it has to be on the table going 

forward. It can be a mix of legislative and private sector voluntary, 

regulatory packages. I think that is probably the innovative thing 

to do to keep it flexible and nimble. But I appreciate your raising 

it. 

Ms. CHU. Thank you. 

I yield back. 

Mr. COBLE. Thank the gentlelady. 

The Chair recognizes the distinguished gentleman from Pennsylvania for 5 minutes, Mr. Marino. 

Mr. MARINO. Thank you, Chairman. 

Good afternoon. How are you? 

Ms. PALLANTE. Hello. 
42 

Mr. MARINO. You mentioned in your opening statement that 

there were quite a few issues that are ripe to be reviewed. Can you 

narrow that down to let’s say the three most important ones to 

you? 

Ms. PALLANTE. You want me to pick my top three favorite? 

Mr. MARINO. Top three. 

Ms. PALLANTE. I think the public performance right for sound recordings is ripe. You have been deliberating on that for more than 

a decade. 

Mr. MARINO. Yeah. 

Ms. PALLANTE. We have done many, you know, pieces of research 

for you on it. 

I think orphan works is ripe. I think that the public is so frustrated by the long copyright term, that it is not really the term 

itself but what to do when the rights holder goes missing. And 

again, we have studied that, and there have been multiple hearings. And we are actually yet in the middle another public inquiry 

at the request of Congress on that. 

And I think, as I mentioned, illegal streaming is ripe. I think for 

me it is a parity issue. And if you have that for the reproduction 

right and the distribution right, but you don’t have it for the public 

performance right, and yet we know that streaming is the way of 

the future for delivering content, it just makes sense. 

Mr. MARINO. I had the opportunity recently to visit China, and 

Russia before that, and I brought these issues up. I may have set 

diplomatic ties back a decade or so, but I was rather insistent 

about it. But both countries blew it off; both the ministers and deputies just blew it off as it being nonexistent. And we all know how 

much money that is costing us in the U.S. and other countries 

doing business legitimately, but how much money is being made in 

Russia and in China. And my question then, what are other countries doing to bring up to date that term, if I may use it, their copyright laws? 

Ms. PALLANTE. Well, it depends on the country. And I would say 

that we interact with foreign countries in the copyright space in a 

number of different ways, at international meetings like at the 

World Intellectual Property Organization, where there is a rather 

slow process I would say rather slow where many different countries at very many different economic levels talk about IP. And that 

is where treaty making often happens. 

Then there are bilateral trade agreements. And the U.S., through 

USTR and others in the Administration, do a very good job of trying to make sure that those who are interested in trading with us 

have sufficient levels of protection. But at a very specific level, you 

will find that some countries are behind us and some are ahead of 

us. So for example, there are countries that are doing Web blocking 

as a last resort. And as you well know, that was the discussion for 

quite a while in this Congress. But it really depends on the situation. 

Mr. MARINO. I was a prosecutor, so I prosecuted these cases, both 

at the State and the Federal level. But an overwhelming number 

of these cases start outside the country. And it has been very difficult on dealing with countries like Russia and China. Any suggestions? 
43 

Ms. PALLANTE. Well, I think everybody knows here that I testified three times on enforcement in 2011. And the approach that I 

thought was a very innovative approach, and which I was happy 

to support, was a follow-the-money approach. And I still think that 

that is something that, you know, whether slowly, deliberatively, 

differently, innovatively, you should continue to look at. Because 

there is just a loophole there. But I think what you are raising is 

the fact pattern that we are very well aware of in the Copyright 

Office, which is if one leaves the country but then directs a website 

of infringing content back to our citizens, how does one get at them 

under U.S. law? 

Mr. MARINO. I will leave you with this thought. My daughter and 

son and I, we download music all the time. We pay for it. And I 

said to my daughter not too long ago, I found this real neat website 

where we can download. And she says, Dad, you are on Judiciary, 

you are on Intellectual Property, that is a bad site, I would stay 

away from it if I were you. So I followed her advice. And thank 

you, I yield back. 

Ms. PALLANTE. Thank you. 

Mr. COBLE. Thank the gentleman. 

The Chair recognizes the distinguished gentleman from Michigan, Mr. Conyers, for 5 minutes. 

Mr. CONYERS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

I join us in welcoming our guest, the Register. And I would like 

to talk about whether you feel that performance and sound people 

should have a right provided in a comprehensive overhaul of the 

Copyright Act. How can we get it passed? 

Ms. PALLANTE. Thank you, sir. I do. The Copyright Office has 

been on record on that issue for a very long time. And I think now, 

because of the promise of Internet radio, the disparity has become 

even greater. 

Mr. CONYERS. That is great. Do you agree that more should be 

done in the area of privacy to protect the intellectual property that 

is being frequently the object of illegal activity, namely theft? 

Ms. PALLANTE. I do. I regrettably am not an expert in privacy 

law. But I can tell you we worry about it even in the Copyright Office, because we are an office of public record, and we put up people’s applications, and sometimes that includes private data. And 

we have to, like everybody else, figure out what the right balance 

is. 

Mr. CONYERS. Now, in the area of copyright piracy, we, I think, 

all know that the economy loses about $58 billion annually, and 

maybe over 300,000 jobs. Are there some ideas you would like to 

leave this Committee with in terms of how we deal with this 

hugely important sector of our economy? 

Ms. PALLANTE. Well, the easy answer is there is no easy answer. 

So enforcement provisions are critical. You can’t have a 21st century copyright act that has 19th century, or 20th century for that 

matter, enforcement provisions. But I think there is also just a general cultural issue that we can play a role in and you can play a 

role in fostering respect for intellectual property. Piracy should not 

mean a teenager downloading music—not in your home but in my 

home—it really should be about trying to make sure the law can 

respond to the great pirates out there who are, with abandon, re-
44 

producing, distributing, and making otherwise making available 

copyrighted works. 

Mr. CONYERS. Well, I thank you very much. 

And I would like the gentleman from Pennsylvania to know that 

we are happy to work with him in the performance rights area. 

And Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time. 

Mr. COBLE. I thank the gentleman. 

The gentleman from Utah is recognized for—I stand corrected. 

The gentleman from Virginia is recognized for 5 minutes, the 

Chairman of the full Committee. 

Mr. GOODLATTE. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thank you 

for holding this hearing. And I would ask unanimous consent that 

my opening statement be made a part of the record. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Goodlatte follows:] 

Prepared Statement of the Honorable Bob Goodlatte, a Representative in 

Congress from the State of Virginia, and Chairman, Committee on the Judiciary 

Statement of Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte Subcommittee on 

Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet Hearing on ‘‘The Register’s Call for 

Updates to U.S. Copyright Law’’ March 20, 2013 Statement Submitted for the 

Record 

This afternoon, we hear from the Register of Copyrights about her ideas for updating U.S. Copyright law. 

Based upon Article One, Section Eight of the U.S. Constitution, our nation’s intellectual property laws strive to balance the rights of creators to protect their works 

with promoting the progress of science and the useful arts. Given the importance 

of intellectual property to our nation’s economy, it is critical that our copyright laws 

reflect the modern economy. The software developer in Silicon Valley, the songwriter in Nashville, and the documentary film maker in Los Angeles all rely upon 

such laws as do those who use copyrighted works for personal, scholarly, or educational use. 

Few would doubt that keeping U.S. copyright law current is complicated by rapidly changing technology. The last major revision to the Copyright Act occurred in 

1976 when the more advanced 8-track tape was pushing aside the less advanced 

reel-to-reel tapes in the audio marketplace. The mid-1970’s were also the time that 

cutting edge VHS and Betamax videotapes were introduced. Good luck finding any 

of those videotapes today. Since the 1976 Act was in fact developed over a number 

of years in the 1960’s and 1970’s, it was truly a copyright law written for the analog 

era. The world has obviously changed a great deal since 1976. Consumers now routinely acquire intellectual property only in digital formats. They purchase apps and 

music files on their phones, and watch streamed videos on their laptops and tablets. 

The notion of acquiring content on a physical item like a disk is rapidly becoming 

as outdated as an 8-track tape. 

Just over two weeks ago, the Register of Copyrights gave a lengthy lecture at Columbia Law School entitled ‘‘The Next Great Copyright Act.’’ In her lecture, she 

called upon Congress to consider making a large number of changes to U.S. copyright law as part of a wholesale revision of the 1976 Act. 

I have been personally involved in several updates to copyright law since 1976 

and understand the importance of keeping our copyright laws current. 

Clearly, the Register’s call to revise, rather than update, the Copyright Act is one 

that is certain to hearten some and, quite frankly, scare others. However, my views 

on the merits, or lack thereof, of a major overhaul depend not upon the scale of the 

effort required, but upon the merits of doing so. I welcome the Register’s thoughts 

into which she has clearly put a great deal of effort. I also welcome the thoughts 

of other Members of this Committee, as well as the thoughts of the copyright 

world—many of whom I do not expect to be shy with their views. 

Ultimately, however, the Committee will look to the words of the Constitution to 

weigh any proposed changes to our nation’s copyright laws—‘‘Congress shall have 

the power to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings 

and Discoveries. 
45 

Mr. GOODLATTE. And I would welcome, Ms. Pallante, and thank 

her for her initiative here, which we heard about. And we are enthusiastic about having you come here and share it with the Committee. And I thank you for doing that. 

You know, we have been through a lot of copyright debates and 

attempts to do things here in this Committee in recent years. And 

the tone of recent copyright debates has often been one that pits 

one or more stakeholder groups against others, as opposed to trying 

to find areas of compromise or consensus. Why do you think that 

the tone of copyrights and debates in our society has become so polarized and hostile? And how do recent debates differ from the 

past, if you know? 

Ms. PALLANTE. Right. I wasn’t there for the 1976 revision. But 

I was a younger lawyer during the DMCA. And so those are my 

guideposts. 

Mr. GOODLATTE. Me, too. 

Ms. PALLANTE. You know, we hate, in the Copyright Office, that 

copyright has gotten a bad name. We suspect it is because of 

money. And we suspect that—well, we know from the many authors, who call us on a daily basis, whether they call the lawyers 

or the help line, that they are feeling like they are on the edge of 

a precipice. But yet the public, I think if you were to poll them randomly, would think copyright is really about a bunch of giant corporations with one perspective or another. 

So I think there is a lot of leadership opportunity in that debate. 

And we would really like, and I think one of my goals, if you were 

to consider a broad conversation about copyright, would be to be 

able to get the respect of the public back into the equation by having a law that actually is a little more intuitive than it is now. 

Mr. GOODLATTE. Well, thank you. And that was really our objective in inviting you here today. What do you see as your role, the 

role of the Copyright Office, in any effort to update the Copyright 

Act over the next few years? 

Ms. PALLANTE. Well, Mr. Chairman, we would take our cue from 

you and the Subcommittee here. But historically, the office has had 

a very close and supportive role with Congress, particularly with 

the Subcommittees that govern intellectual property. And we are at 

your disposal, whether that is for roundtables, advisory committees, red lines of the statute, revisions, studies, whatever it is that 

you might need. But we are poised and ready to help. 

Mr. GOODLATTE. And how about looking forward for the office 

itself? In 2011, you published a list of priorities and special projects 

for the office that were designed to ensure that our copyright system is updated in the digital area. In your view, what specific improvements or authorities does the office need in order to make 

itself into a 21st century agency? 

Ms. PALLANTE. Thank you so much for that question. I will separate it into operations and policy, although my staff will tell you 

that I am constantly saying you cannot separate those two things. 

But on the operations side at a high level, we need better technology. We have both a user community and a copyright owner 

community frustrated by the interface that they interact with when 

they come to our office. So whether they are trying to register, say 

they are uploading a film, they don’t expect the system to crash as 
46 

they are trying to deposit their film. Our own staff is frustrated by 

the kind of inadequacies of the technology. We don’t have enough 

staff. But we, I think more importantly, are looking at how to retrain and redirect the staff we do have. 

So I am, for example, trying to do a reorganization of the entire 

place because I have found that the departments that I oversee are 

dated themselves. They date back, frankly, to the 1970’s and 

1980’s. So there is much that we can do coloring within the lines. 

But I think, at some point, we just need more support, and we need 

to know what Congress wants the office to be. 

On the policy side, the question I think, again, for Congress is 

do you want us to help fill in the blanks where the statute ends 

by having perhaps more rulemaking authority? And I would add to 

that maybe a little more control over our budget in terms of the 

fees that come in that we would like to turn back into the system 

of technology, or resources generally, but are often offset against 

our appropriations. In other words, we are a business. And I don’t 

think ever in the history of the office, we have really operated like 

a business. And we would like to do that. The staff I have now is 

very business-oriented. 

Mr. GOODLATTE. Well, thank you. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. COBLE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

The Chair recognizes the gentlelady from Washington, Ms. 

DelBene, for 5 minutes. 

Ms. DELBENE. Thank you, Mr. Chair. 

And thank you for being here and for spending the time with us. 

I really appreciate it. 

I am an old tech person, and so you talked about how our law 

from 1976 wasn’t even really about 1976 by the time we got it implemented. And clearly, we could be at risk of doing that all over 

again. And, you know, I am a new Member of Congress, but you 

talked a lot about how we have had hearings and hearings on 

many of these issues before. So how do we—or what are your recommendations on how we—get ahead, or stay ahead so that we 

aren’t guilty of doing the same thing all over again and implementing a law that is 10 years old and are starting out behind? 

Ms. PALLANTE. That is such a great question. Thank you. I will 

say two things just right off the bat. One is I have no interest in 

sticking around for 21 years to talk about the law what we should 

have in 2013. So we, again, will take our cues from you, but we 

think, you know, a few years of very solid drafting and revision is 

probably what you are looking at if you really want to do something broader. And then the other thing that I would say is something that I just referenced briefly, which is how much of the law— 

how much detail do you want to be in the law? And how much do 

you want to put into regs, into rulemakings, practices, reward voluntary behavior? How much of it has to actually be in the code? 

And I would say particularly for economic issues and technology 

issues. 

Ms. DELBENE. And so do you feel like you have more flexibility 

to keep it up to date if the statute is more broad is basically what 

you are saying? 

Ms. PALLANTE. That is what I am saying. 
47 

Ms. DELBENE. Okay. Then you also talked about your technology 

being out-of-date and kind of struggling to keep up with folks who 

are trying to get you information, et cetera. Are you talking about 

something that would be a very significant change in what you 

have right now or—— 

Ms. PALLANTE. I don’t know. I think, you know, I have only been 

the Register for 22 months. And I know that when the paper system was updated to electronic, it was in 2007. There was an enormous backlog that occurred right after that. There was a lot of support from the Library to try to get the backlog down. When I first 

became Register, I got nothing but backlog questions. And I was 

saying, but that is not the right question. The question is how is 

my technology, and how many staff do I have. And I realized it had 

become kind of an institutional question. But from where I sit, of 

course we should not have a backlog. But if we are only registering 

a small amount of things with a small staff and we are not doing 

it that well, we have bigger issues to figure out. 

Ms. DELBENE. So how long is the backlog? 

Ms. PALLANTE. We, thanks to the great dedication of the registration staff, we don’t really have a backlog. We have a 2- to 4-month 

wait for electronic applications, which is quite reasonable. I talk to 

copyright stakeholders all over the country all the time, and they 

tell me that that is a reasonable amount of time to wait for a certificate. You know, the obvious question is, do you want it overnight? Is that the expectation in a world of technology? And I think 

you will find that they are reasonable when dealing with government actors. And of course, we would like to get it to be as good 

as possible. But that is really not my primary concern right now. 

It is not the thing that wakes me up at 3 in the morning, because 

the backlog is relatively stable. 

Ms. DELBENE. So what does wake you up at 3 in the morning? 

Ms. PALLANTE. The technology wakes me up, and just, you know, 

this is a blessing and a curse. So many people want the office to 

be so many things. You know, could you give me the answer? Is 

this fair use or not? Can you help me with curricula for my 

schools? Can you not just tell me what the courts are saying but 

tell us, you know, whether we can do this or not? Those kinds of 

things. And could you connect your database to my database? And 

could you do more public-private partnerships? And some of that 

is a security issue, because our offices are on Capitol Hill, and 

there is only so much connecting to private databases that I think 

we will be permitted to do. But we haven’t—we are just now exploring those things. We have had hundreds of meetings in the last 

year and a half with stakeholders. My staff would tell you that we 

had some rules that we will talk to lawyers, but when we are talking about technology, we really want to talk to technology people. 

So not, you know, what are the legal rights that you are administering, but how does your database work? How do you sort the 

financial data? How do you present it? 

We have databases that are online in the office, but they are very 

siloed and very dated. They have been the same four fields for 30 

years. And copyright is now life-plus 70. So one example might be 

should we have the database of death certificates for authors? Who 
48 

knows when copyright expires? Where are they going to get that 

information? That is just a small example. 

Ms. DELBENE. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. 

Thank you, Mr. Chair. 

Mr. COBLE. I thank the lady. 

The gentleman from Utah, Mr. Chaffetz, is recognized for 5 minutes. 

Mr. CHAFFETZ. Thank the Chairman. 

And thank you for being here and the good work that you do. I 

appreciate it. There have been three different Web casting rate setting proceedings under the so-called willing buyer-willing seller 

standard, and yet there has never been a time when any significant percentage of the Internet radio royalties paid to 

SoundExchange have been paid pursuant to the rates established 

by one of the proceedings. Congress has had to repeatedly intervene, and three different laws have had to be passed to allow fixes 

to the rates established by these proceedings. 

So my question is twofold. Why has the process for setting Internet radio rates have been so ineffective? And would you consider 

changes to the current CRB proceedings and rate structure that 

could better incentivize growth in Web casting and allow it to succeed? 

Ms. PALLANTE. Thank you, sir. 

I think what I would say at a high level is music licensing is so 

complicated and so broken that if we can get that right, I will be 

very optimistic about getting the entire statute right. And of 

course, we are more than willing to look at that very specific issue 

that you just raised. I think that is the kind of issue that we 

should fold into the next great copyright act. How do we get that 

right? Because if licensing isn’t working, then copyright is not 

working. 

Mr. CHAFFETZ. The recent cell phone unlocking controversy has 

revealed a deeper problem. Right now, it is impossible to add permanent exceptions to section 1201 because doing so violates obligations of the Korean Free Trade Agreement, among others. And 

similar problems arise at the Berne Convention, when people propose shortening length of copyright protection or reintroducing 

some of the formalities. Does it make sense for Congress’ hands to 

be tied in such a way? And how can we enact necessary reforms 

without waiting for multiple renegotiations with disparate trading 

partners? What do we do there? 

Ms. PALLANTE. That is the circle of life question, right? So we in 

the U.S. enact certain provisions. We then ask trading partners to 

do the same. And then they say, okay, but don’t change your law, 

and we say, okay. Then we are all stuck. Right? But I think, obviously, trade is important. Obviously, we are a global citizen. We 

could just do whatever you want to do. You could decide that copyright should be 25 years. 

What will happen if you do that, though, is that our own authors 

and corporations who invest in copyright, and for whom, you know, 

the economy has rewarded us and them, would be disadvantaged 

just by virtue of the operation of the treaties. I know you know all 

this, but those are the kinds of issues. 
49 

But I think the Congress should lead on these issues and do 

what it has done in the past. Because in the past it has often said, 

we are a global citizen, and we are going to do what we think is 

best, but we also have our own unique history. So, for example, you 

didn’t do away completely with formalities when we entered the 

Berne Convention. You have residues of formalities in the law. You 

have to register before you get into court to see if it is in fact copyrightable. There are small things that you can do to leave the 

American imprint I think. I don’t know how to help you with the 

bigger question. 

Mr. CHAFFETZ. And Mr. Chairman, I guess part of what I highlight in this question is the need to address these as we do free 

trade agreements. I have one more question as I conclude here. 

You had recently brought up the issue of digital first-sale and 

seemed to express some concern about living in a world where 

more and more we no longer actually own things in the traditional 

sense of the word, but where we rather just license things, thing 

after thing. Can you go a little deeper on that? And what are some 

of the potentially negative consequences of living in a world where 

we merely license things as opposed to own things? 

Ms. PALLANTE. Well, I think it needs more deliberation. But 

thank you for raising it, because I think it is one of the significant 

issues that will have to be resolved. I think, on the one hand, the 

first-sale doctrine comes out of real property. If you own something, 

you should be able to dispose of it, that particular tangible property. But if, in fact, the world of copyright isn’t really about disposing of copies but endless consumer licenses, the question is does 

Congress want to do some version not really of first-sale doctrine, 

because again you are not dealing with a tangible copy, but do you 

want to mirror some policy point like that in the law? 

In my lecture at Columbia, I gave an example where Congress 

had migrated a concept and applied it in a completely new context. 

So, in the old law, the very old law, the 1909 law, there was a renewal of copyright necessary as a condition of continued protection. 

And in the new law, the 1976 law, which is not so new, you went 

to automatic protection. But authors they, or at least ostensibly 

had had, a trigger for renegotiating their bad contracts at that renewal juncture with the people that they had, you know, licensed 

their song or their book. And so what Congress said is, we like 

that, that is a good policy point. We are going to create a termination provision where authors can renegotiate at some point later 

in the future. So it is just that kind of issue I think. Do you want 

to create something in the digital world so that the world of copyright is not just about licenses? And I don’t actually have a solid 

view on this. I am going to keep looking at it. I think it is not really a digital first sale, it is something like that. 

Mr. CHAFFETZ. A big issue. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yield back. 

And I would note for the record, by the way, I was 9 years old 

in 1976. 

Mr. COBLE. Quit bragging. 

I thank the gentleman from Utah. 

The distinguished gentleman from Florida, Mr. Deutch, is recognized for 5 minutes. 
50 

Mr. DEUTCH. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Ms. Pallante, I am sure you agree, almost every aspect of American society has benefited from our robust copyright protection. We 

should all be proud that America entertains, America educates, 

America informs the world, and in doing so, five percent of the 

workforce is employed as the world’s largest exporter of creative 

works. It should be self-evident, therefore, that we have got to ensure that our creators are protected and fairly compensated. Now, 

I applaud you for your recognition that while we have to continue 

to strengthen protections for artists, innovators, and entrepreneurs, 

we are truly living in a new world thanks to new technologies that 

have moved the arcane subject of copyright law to a breathtakingly 

large new group of engaged stakeholders on the Internet social 

media platforms. When my teenage daughters are talking to their 

classmates about copyright law, when the world is tweeting about 

copyright law, something that many of my colleagues on this Committee learned a great deal about, we have truly crossed into a new 

era. 

And I agree that we have to take a serious look at the Copyright 

Act, we have to examine what is working and what is not for creators and for all of the stakeholders, whether they are victims of 

piracy or whether they are victims of antiquated laws that made 

sense at a moment in time. This Subcommittee has to ensure that 

our laws work in the digital age. But the enormous obstacle that 

I think we face is how to open up that dialogue to the new universe 

of people who care about copyright law in a way that inspires them 

to actually care about copyright. That is not necessarily obvious 

that that connection exists. 

The basic premise of our copyright law is that we are all enriched when creators create, and that creators must be able to earn 

a fair return on their ingenuity. But for a generation growing up 

on the Internet, the perception too often is that anything that 

comes on your computer is free, and copyright simply means all the 

things that keep you from doing what you think you should be able 

to do at any time, at no cost. So what I would like you to speak 

to are some of the concrete steps that this comprehensive review 

that you proposed can do to make copyright relevant and inclusive 

in a way that doesn’t water down the reasons that we have it in 

the first place. 

Ms. PALLANTE. Thank you for that question. So we think about 

this all the time, 24-7, across the street in the Copyright Office. 

And I said earlier, we all love copyright so much; it is our chosen 

field of expertise. We see the beauty of the law. We see the innovation of the law. And nobody is more pained than us to see the disrespect for the law, especially among young people. And nobody is 

more unhappy to live in the home of a copyright lawyer than my 

children. So I know where you are coming from. I would say 

that—— 

Mr. DEUTCH. Our kids should talk, I think. 

Ms. PALLANTE. Yeah. I think even getting to the universe of 

issues is going to require a strategy. So if you were to go down this 

road of broadly looking at the new framework, I have laid out quite 

a lot of issues in my Manges Lecture at Columbia, but that is not 

the whole universe. There are more. And you would have to 
51 

prioritize them. I think you have to figure out what the exclusive 

rights of authors are first. What should they be in the 21st century? For example, obviously the public performance right is becoming increasingly important because works are now being 

streamed, not necessarily reproduced and distributed. So we have 

to get that right. 

At the same time, there are incidental copies. And we should 

probably exempt certain incidental copies just because not doing so 

is going to just ruin the perception and the workability of copyright 

law. We have made recommendations along those lines before. Not 

every reproduction is a reproduction with a capital R is what I 

would say. 

I think although we love the trade associations that visit us on 

a daily basis, getting around them sometimes and getting to other 

kinds of creators, other kinds of users, people who are struggling 

in schools and higher ed and other places, would really be instructional. So I would also probably recommend that we, if we were to 

have roundtables, get out of Washington a little bit. Go somewhere 

like Nashville, where people make a living from writing songs at 

their kitchen table, or New Orleans. Go to, you know, schools, that 

kind of thing. 

Mr. DEUTCH. I think that is a fantastic idea. I just would have 

one other quick question, if I may. Consumers today can access 

copyrighted content and TV programming, films, music, books, 

magazines, on a whole array of devices. Interactive TVs, Blu-ray, 

Roku, Xboxes, Netflix, iTunes, Hulu, C.R.A.C.K., I mean, we can go 

on and on and on. And clearly, and it is a rhetorical question I 

think, this whole array of legitimate services that exists, these 

platforms, could they have flourished without strong U.S. copyright 

protection in place? 

Ms. PALLANTE. Have they flourished? 

Mr. DEUTCH. Would they exist at all? 

Ms. PALLANTE. No. I see. Could they exist without the copyright 

framework? No. Copyright is the lifeblood of those kinds of companies. And they take the creative work that we all love so much and 

that people spend a lifetime creating, in some instances, and give 

it to us, and make it possible, and make it lasting. And I think, 

you know, consumers, obviously, when they are purchasing a copy 

of something may think they are purchasing the entire work forever. But they are purchasing a copy. And I think what you are 

seeing is the market is trying to adjust and struggling to figure out 

price points. If people think they are buying a copy forever, should 

we be selling the Blu-ray for $2,500? Or should we continue to sell 

it for $30, knowing that they are going to come back and think that 

they bought it forever? Those are market questions. 

Mr. DEUTCH. I appreciate the discussion. Thank you. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. COBLE. The distinguished gentleman from North Carolina, 

Mr. Holding, is recognized for 5 minutes. 

Mr. HOLDING. Good afternoon. 

Ms. PALLANTE. Hello. 

Mr. HOLDING. Sticking with the trade issue for a minute, writing 

in dissent in yesterday’s Supreme Court case on the first-sale doctrine and the importation right, Justices Ginsburg, Scalia, and 
52 

Kennedy expressed grave concerns that the majority opinion in 

that case places our law squarely at odds with the stance the 

United States has taken in international trade negotiations. And 

they note that, quote, ‘‘Our government reached the conclusion that 

widespread adoption of the international exhaustion framework 

would be inconsistent with the long term economic interests of the 

United States.’’ And that has consistently been advocated against 

such a policy in international trade negotiations. But they note 

that this is exactly the framework adopted by the Supreme Court 

in yesterday’s opinion. 

You know, is this a significant issue? Is this an issue of significance that the Supreme Court Justices are suggesting? It appears 

to be both a matter of substantive law as well as a matter of U.S. 

credibility on the international trade negotiation front. If you could 

run through that a bit and give us your comments. 

Ms. PALLANTE. Right. Well, and we could talk for days probably 

about that issue. 

Mr. HOLDING. Just 4 minutes. 

Ms. PALLANTE. Just 4 minutes. I understand the reasoning of the 

Supreme Court in reaching the decision that they did. They were 

looking at competing provisions in an aging statute, right, which is 

my theme. The statute is getting harder and harder for courts to 

apply. But what they were looking at was, does the first-sale doctrine limit the distribution right? And they decided, yes, it does. 

That doesn’t mean that the importation right isn’t important now 

or shouldn’t be more important in the future. 

The question for Congress on this, just to keep it short, as you 

suggested, is, again, what are the rights that authors and creators 

need in the 21st century? Are geographical considerations among 

them? Not just because they now and always have actually under 

copyright segmented markets and controlled their business strategies in that way—I am going to market X at X price point in the 

U.S., and Y in the EU at a different price point, and then Thailand 

altogether different strategy—so do you want them to be able to 

continue to do that because that has served the U.S. economy extraordinarily well, provided incentives to the creators? But also as 

a copyright lawyer, I would say it gets more basic than that. 

It goes back to the divisibility of copyright. So divisibility on one 

level can be I can carve up my pie of copyright in terms of distribution right, reproduction right, public performance right. I am going 

to write a book. It is going to be made into a film. Then there is 

going to be a Kindle adaptation. 

I think—— 

Mr. HOLDING. And don’t forget the video game. 

Ms. PALLANTE. Don’t forget the video game and then the theme 

park like in Harry Potter World, my favorite park. I think they 

also go a level deeper than that and unless you are in copyright 

transactions, unless you are familiar with them, that is not necessarily as evident, that it is not just the reproduction right, but 

it is the reproduction right in different parts of the world for different purposes, for different durations sometimes. 

Mr. HOLDING. Justice Kagan writing with Alito in concurrence 

suggests that a way to give effect to the intent—Congress’ intent— 

in providing a meaningful importation right without the unin-
53 

tended consequences raised in a briefing before the Court would be 

overturning the 1998 Quality King case and held the importation 

right to be properly limited by the first-sale doctrine. What is your 

review on that proposed solution? 

Ms. PALLANTE. Well, I think you can make the importation right 

meaningful if you want to do so, which is another way of saying 

if you believe that market segmentation is important in copyright, 

whether because you believe in divisibility of copyrights and that 

has worked well for us or you just believe in the economy, they are 

intertwined, there is no reason that you can’t look at the importation right. Again, I think it goes to what are the rights of authors 

in the 21st century. 

Mr. HOLDING. Thank you. 

Mr. Chairman, I yield back. 

Mr. COBLE. I thank the gentleman from North Carolina. 

The distinguished gentleman from Georgia, Mr. Johnson, is recognized for 5 minutes. 

Mr. JOHNSON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

I want to focus on one issue, Ms. Pallante, that has caused considerable distress to institutions of higher learning located near my 

district in Georgia, and this is a problem that has affected universities across the world—excuse me, across the Nation. In a recent 

example of the uncertain copyright challenges facing educators, 

staff members at Georgia State University were named as defendants in a lawsuit brought by Cambridge University Press and other 

publishers. And the key issue in that case was whether the faculty’s use of e-reserves was fair. Are you familiar with that case, 

Cambridge Press v. Patton. 

Ms. PALLANTE. Yes, sir, I am. 

Mr. JOHNSON. Can you comment on what role fair use and licensing should play in higher education? 

Ms. PALLANTE. Yes, and the short answer is they both have to 

play a role, which I think is probably what you are getting at in 

your question. So fair use is a critical part of U.S. copyright law. 

It is what makes our law American. It is tied up in freedom of expression. But it also has been applied to certain kinds of uses and 

certain kinds of contexts, for example, in education. However, higher ed has also been very well served by the market. So you don’t 

want publishers of all kinds, serial publishers, textbook publishers, 

publishers of novels, literary works, coming out of that market because, in my opinion, it will affect the quality of the curricula materials that are available. 

So what I would want to see in an ecosystem like higher ed is 

a robust mix of all of those things coming together. So you want 

micro-licensing. You want it to be easy. You almost want it to be 

invisible. For example, we talk a lot about collective licensing in 

the copyright office. The reason that that is attractive, whether it 

is voluntary or legislative—you can have both kinds—is that it can 

be done almost at the top of the institution, the students could pay 

a fee, bingo, their academic materials are paid for through a license, it doesn’t have to be a lot. 

At the same time, not everything should be licensed, and that’s 

I think where you are seeing tension in higher ed. I would say, at 
54 

a more basic level, higher ed people who have to apply copyright 

are confused and rightly so. 

Mr. JOHNSON. Well, that’s something that we definitely need to 

clear up. Professors across the country utilize e-reserves to make 

limited copies of articles for students. Although Georgia State faculty prevailed on most of the infringement claims, the case is still 

troubling because—can you imagine the difficulty of educators 

when quoting a text, or showing images, or distributing handouts, 

surely these should be non-infringing uses? Is there anything that 

you can give us some guidance about on that issue? 

Ms. PALLANTE. I can. 

So, in 1976, Congress looked at an outright education exemption 

and decided no, we are not going to do an outright exemption for 

education. I think in part if you look at the legislative history, because it is so complex, some stuff is fair use, some stuff is not fair 

use. It depends on the work. It depends on context. It depends if 

it is commercially available. It depends if higher ed is the point of 

the market. Lots of factors. 

Later, after a report from the copyright office at Congress’ direction, Congress enacted a distance ed exemption that was negotiated 

so much, so well negotiated that it is almost useless. And it is part 

of the stress I think—of dealing I think—with education in the digital world. So I am not advocating for an exemption for higher ed, 

but I am quite sympathetic to the fact that ordinary lay people who 

are not copyright experts cannot navigate the copyright law. And 

so if we can put together a forward-thinking—with appropriate 

guidance from expert agencies like mine and room for regulations 

and best practices, some of which is happening in the private sector—then that would be great for those who want to get on with 

teaching. 

Mr. JOHNSON. Great. With respect to K through 12 education the 

increasing costs of textbooks in the face of decreasing budgets, are 

there ways that educators can use technology to deliver text to students without infringing works or being hauled into court? 

Mr. COBLE. Madam Register, the time has expired, be very brief 

in your answer. 

Ms. PALLANTE. Yes, there’s a way to help teachers understand 

the law and navigate the law. And I think the price of textbooks 

is again a market issue. And I am not a market expert, but I think 

the markets are evolving, maybe not fast enough. 

Mr. JOHNSON. Thank you. 

Mr. COBLE. I thank the gentlemen. 

Thank you, Madam. I am going to recognize one more witness, 

and we will go vote, and then we will return because some witnesses have not yet been heard. 

The gentleman from Florida, Mr. DeSantis, is recognized for 5 

minutes. 

Mr. DESANTIS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Thank you for coming, and I read your paper and your testimony, and I really appreciate you making an issue that this stuff 

needs to be more accessible and readable for the average person. 

When I was running, I made an issue of saying, I am going to 

read every law before I vote on it; I am not going to pass the bill 

to find out what is in it. Although people appreciated that, but then 
55 

I got up here and I started actually reading the bills and, you 

know, it is not always all that helpful. I need to do a lot more than 

that. So you have to read the bill, then you have to read other statutes and this and this and whatever. 

I think it really undermines the rule of law if this is not in any 

way accessible to the average person, and this is something that 

the Founding Fathers talked about. I mean James Madison said in 

the Federalist Papers, that if the law is too voluminous to be understood or voluminous to be read or too incomprehensible to be 

understood, you are really poisoning the blessings of liberty. So 

thank you for that. I think that that applies across the board with 

the things that we are doing here but certainly for this. 

Just a couple quick questions. The good thing about copyright is 

it is actually envisioned by the Constitution, it is something that 

is in there. I think, as I read the Founding Fathers, that they really believe that the public good coincided with giving inventors and 

writers a property right in what they were doing. I think that they 

thought that that was just right anyway, but they also thought 

that that would incentivize, you know, more of that and more inventiveness in the future. So they viewed them as kind of going 

hand in hand. Do you agree with that, or do you, because I notice 

in part of your testimony, you had talked about how we have to 

kind of define the public interest? And I wasn’t sure if you were 

maybe saying that in this day and age, that that kind of harmony 

isn’t quite the same as it was back then. I just wanted to give you 

a chance to respond. 

Ms. PALLANTE. Thank you. I absolutely think that the constitutional clause is our guiding force on copyright law. I think it served 

the Nation extraordinarily well for two centuries. I think the problem we have today in terms of the imbalance that we might feel 

in the copyright statute is that we have gotten away from that 

equation that puts the authors as the primary beneficiaries, followed by the public good. There is a lot of ‘‘we would like immediate access’’ and ‘‘we would like broader fair use.’’ We believe in 

all of those principles, access and fair use, but it is not supposed 

to be at the expense of the creators. The law is pretty clear on that, 

and the Supreme Court has upheld that many times. 

Mr. DESANTIS. I noticed with kind of the streaming—stuff that’s 

illegally streamed on the Internet—that the White House I guess 

has asked for clarification, because—does the statute have a loophole to where it is either copies or, I guess, it is envisioning like 

a physical document? So is that something in the law that you 

think should be addressed? 

Ms. PALLANTE. I think that’s one of the first things that I would 

advise if you wanted me to pick. That would be one of the top 

things on the list, because what you are alluding to is that there 

are criminal penalties—and this is in the criminal context, not 

civil—egregious criminal infringement, piracy at the worst purposeful levels, right? So law enforcement can go after the reproduction 

or the distribution, and they can go after that in a meaningful way 

because those are felonies, not misdemeanors. 

The public performance right, which is another enumerated 

right, which is implicated by streaming, performing the work, not 
56 

necessarily downloading and distributing a copy, streaming, whether it is a football game or music, is a misdemeanor. 

Mr. DESANTIS. In your testimony, you talked about updating enforcement provisions I guess more generally than this particular instance. Can you give me some other examples of areas that you 

think may need updating? 

Ms. PALLANTE. Sure. We are doing a study for actually this Subcommittee on small claims mechanisms, just because of the sheer 

expense of Federal court for some of the smaller actors in the 

space. And it goes to your earlier theme of remembering that authors are kind of the point, the primary—first beneficiaries of copyright law, and so do they need some kind of quick and dirty way 

to get quick results without—because otherwise, they don’t have 

any enforcement at all. So we are looking at it. It is constitutionally very complex; it is complex in general. 

There are other issues that this Committee has looked at in the 

past when it comes to offshore websites run by pirates, out of our 

jurisdiction but directing infringing activity at our people, what do 

we do with that? I think over time, you will have to look at that; 

the whole world is looking at that issue. 

Mr. DESANTIS. Great. Time is about to expire, we will go vote. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman and I yield back the balance of my 

time. 

Mr. COBLE. I thank the gentleman, we will stand in recess, and 

we will return imminently. 

[Recess.] 

Mr. MARINO [presiding]. We’re going to call the hearing to order. 

And I believe the next Congressman to ask questions is Mr. 

Jeffries from New York. 

Thank you. 

Mr. JEFFRIES. Thank you, Mr. Chair. 

I thank you and the Ranking Member. 

And I thank you, Ms. Pallante, for your testimony and for your 

service. 

You referenced earlier the view that copyright law exists or 

should exist to serve the public interest, which I think is an assessment that all of us on this Committee share within the Congress; 

certainly it is a Constitutional prerogative that we have been 

charged with in that regard. 

Is it fair to say that in the context of promoting the public interest through the vehicle of copyright law, that one of the greatest 

threats—or something that should be evaluated—is the ability for 

the creative community to have its work respected and protected? 

Ms. PALLANTE. Yes, thank you so much for that question, Congressman. 

In other words, the other side of that eloquent statement is that 

people do not have a right to have whatever they want when they 

want it for free if it is the intellectual property of someone else. 

There was a beautiful quote last year in the New York Times by 

some book authors and journalists, who said that the reality is that 

it takes sometimes a lifetime of perfecting one’s craft to create that 

great work that others come to cherish and find meaning from. And 

so we have to have a long view of culture, and that’s one of the 

great things about copyright law, is it has a long view of 
57 

incentivizing authors, letting them benefit from their works, letting 

others invest in those, and so that ultimately, we’re all better off. 

Mr. JEFFRIES. Now, in the past, piracy, or Internet piracy, or piracy as it relates to the work of the creative community, has been 

centered on unauthorized, illegal, unlawful reproduction and distribution; is that correct? 

Ms. PALLANTE. Yes, that’s correct. 

Mr. JEFFRIES. Now, in recent times, that shifted as it relates to 

Internet piracy to illegal streaming; is that correct? 

Ms. PALLANTE. Yes, that is correct. 

Mr. JEFFRIES. In your view, did the current copyright laws and 

the criminal penalties that are attendant to those laws, are they 

sufficient to deal with the shift in piracy that has taken place from 

reproduction and distribution to unlawful streaming? And if they 

are not, what suggestions would you have for this Subcommittee 

and for the Congress as to what we should be thinking about moving forward to address that shift? 

Ms. PALLANTE. Thank you so much for the question. So there is 

a gap in the current law, there are many gaps all over the law on 

different issues. But on enforcement, it is clear that the public performance right has come into its own as a primary way to disseminate copyrighted work. So whether you are streaming the Super 

Bowl, whether you are streaming music or a movie the point is, you 

don’t always need to have a copy and the consumer may not want 

a copy. Sometimes you may want to download your favorite movie 

and watch it 30 times, but with all due respect to the motion picture industry, sometimes you just want to stream it once and 

watch it. And so, in that case, if there is a legal streaming happening, especially in an egregious willful, profit-driven kind of way 

how do you get at that activity if the best you can do is go after 

them for a misdemeanor? 

Mr. JEFFRIES. Now, another vehicle to deal with sort of the illegal highjacking of creative content is the notice and take-down 

process. What is your take on how successful that process is as of 

this moment and what are some of the things that we should be 

thinking about moving forward to make sure that we have the 

proper mechanisms in place moving forward to deal with this 

issue? 

Ms. PALLANTE. Well, that is a huge question. I would say that 

if you go down the road of looking at the next great copyright act 

and revising the statute in a more comprehensive way, you should 

look at the DMCA, you should look at the efficacy of the DMCA. 

And 15 years, that is a very long time in Internet years. How is 

it working? What have the courts done with it? Who is it affecting 

in what way? So there are many, many players in the ecosystem 

on the Internet, and I think you will hear gripes from both sides. 

You will hear from copyright owners, particularly small ones, 

that there’s no way they can keep up with the infringement happening on the Web by sending notice after notice after notice, 

sometimes only to find that they pop up again. They are supposed 

to be creating, how could they possibly deal in that kind of environment? Did we have any concept 15 years ago that there would be 

this many notices and this kind of burden? 
58 

However, on the other side, the DMCA was meant to be flexible 

and to provided rules of road so that the Internet could flourish. 

And I think you will find that Internet actors will say there are 

abuses in both directions. They don’t know how to deal with the notices that may not be correct. 

Mr. JEFFRIES. Thank you for your testimony. 

Thank you, Mr. Chair. 

Mr. COBLE [presiding]. The gentleman’s time has expired. 

The distinguished gentleman from Georgia, Mr. Collins, recognized for 5 minutes. 

Mr. COLLINS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, I appreciate it. 

It has been a long day this afternoon. Yesterday’s decision by the 

Supreme Court regarding first-sale doctrine raises some concerns. 

And while the first-sale doctrine is important to copyright law, especially for businesses that resell products, such as Goodwill—majority. The majority’s opinion to me raises some questions and 

issues of concern that I believe have implications beyond the scope 

of the first-sale doctrine. It is my hope that we are going to move 

deliberately, as you have said, to make this readable, something 

the average person can understand. 

I think there are two things that the average person away from 

the Beltway does not understand: one, why it takes us so long to 

do anything, and number two, why we can’t read it once we’re 

done. And this is something that I’m focused on here, and when 

you look at the breakdown of the Justices here, this is a different 

ideological breakdown. And I think even the Court sort of made 

light of itself when it said, having once written tomato is a vegetable, are we bound to always call it a fruit—not be able to call it 

a fruit after that? 

This is where I’m getting; this is an important topic. It is an important topic when we deal with what protections are involved. I 

want to ask this first question, and then I have got one on licensing 

in just a minute that I want to get your comment on. The majority 

wrote in this, the Court decision yesterday was regarding first sale, 

and the majority in—as Justice Breyer seemed to be very focused 

on a list of problems that would ensue if the Court adopted the 

nongeographic interpretation offered by Wiley. 

Do you believe that there is sufficient statutory protection in current law such as exists in 602(a)(3)(C) that provides ample protection against the supposed consequences that came up by the Court, 

because if potential consequences are posed are real or done, this 

would be very troubling. What is your take on that? 

Ms. PALLANTE. It goes to the question of how important do you 

want the importation and exportation provisions to be in the next 

great copyright act. So they have never been part of the bundle of 

exclusive rights in section 106, which is the primary list of rights 

of creators, and they have now been interpreted in the way that 

they interact with the first-sale doctrine, the case you just described. That doesn’t mean that Congress can’t decide that segmentation of markets is important. 

It would probably also, if it went down that road, decide that 

there should be some exceptions. There is an exception in current 

law, for example, for libraries to import certain kinds of works and 

for people to bring in their suitcase from their vacation certain 
59 

numbers of works. Those provisions are now meaningless in the 

wake of Kirtsaeng decision, so do you want to recalibrate that? Do 

you want market segmentation? 

I could read you a very important quote. It will just take a second. There is a long list of cases that we track where the courts 

say very politely, you know, it would really be great if Congress 

looked at this. Here is one from yesterday: Whether copyright owners should, or should not, have more than ordinary commercial 

power to divide international markets is a matter for Congress to 

decide. 

Mr. COLLINS. And I think that throws it back, there is also something else in the majority opinion, and I think this is something we 

look at, where they did spend time on the Constitution promoting 

progress of science and arts—and useful arts, and they talked 

about being able to disseminate these creative works. To me—and 

that’s a laudable end. The other problem, though, is there seems 

to be an issue here, and was sort of silent on, is that they seem 

to be more silent on promoting the protection of the creative works 

that went into those issues. So my question here, and it is a short 

one because I do want to get to the licensing part, taking, if you 

go from a purely geographical interpretation, does that present 

problems in doing what we’re talking about, especially when it gets 

to the bundle of sticks, so to speak, of the property rights and taking into the dissemination issue as well? 

Ms. PALLANTE. Well, you have two competing equally important 

issues. You have one, consumers have expectations, and there are 

companies that have been built around that. So if something has 

been sold in China, I have a way to deliver that to you in the U.S. 

Why isn’t that the way the market works? Then you have copyright 

owners saying, but we have the right to divide our copyrights; that 

is basic to copyright law. And we do that in different kinds of ways. 

Mr. COLLINS. And this goes back to a statement that was made 

earlier in a line of questioning, in licensing, isn’t there also an underlying determination if there is ownership somewhere? 

Ms. PALLANTE. Yes. 

Mr. COLLINS. We can’t just have a licensed world. Licensing in 

and of itself assumes ownership. Is that something, in this next, 

quote, as you say, ‘‘great copyright act,’’ we’ve got to deal with the 

fact there is an ownership issue, and then we have licensing as 

well, and this is something I would hope all sides could come together on and look at? I would like your thoughts on that. 

Ms. PALLANTE. I think you’re right. I think that’s how the firstsale doctrine would apply in a world of licensing, particularly online, is a complicated question, but ultimately, Congress should 

make a decision about it. Do you want a world of licensing only? 

Will the Kirtsaeng decision drive copyright owners to do more licensing online and less physical copies? 

Mr. COLLINS. Well, but I think the other issue here, though, is 

driving toward licensing is fine. However, at a certain point in 

time, you have a right, or a start, that is there to begin with. 

Thank you, ma’am, I yield back. 

Mr. COBLE. I thank the gentleman from Georgia. 

The gentlelady from California, Ms. Bass, is recognized for 5 

minutes. 
60 

Ms. BASS. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. 

And excuse me if these questions have come up before, it is kind 

of a crazy day, as I know you know. But I wanted to ask questions 

to really understand part of the debate. And I know there is a lot 

of debate around First Amendment and whether copyright helps or 

inhibits the First Amendment. And I wanted to ask you if you 

could give me your opinions on that. Does it promote expression 

and free speech? Does it inhibit it? 

Ms. PALLANTE. My personal opinion is it absolutely does, but you 

don’t have to take that for an answer, the Supreme Court has confirmed it more than once in Harper & Row v. The Nation, Sandra 

Day O’Connor said, in fact, it is the engine of creativity. And I 

think, more recently, the Supreme Court has said that fair use is 

in fact a safety valve in the construct of copyright, but they are 

both equally important. 

Ms. BASS. Well, maybe you could explain in your opinion how 

you think it does help. 

Ms. PALLANTE. How do I think the—— 

Ms. BASS. The copyright helps. 

Ms. PALLANTE. I’ll take Sandra Day O’Connor’s quote, but it is 

the engine of free expression. It is an incentive for people to create. 

We don’t decide what people can and can’t express. But if they are 

going to do it in a meaningful way and make a living from it, then 

copyright becomes the means by which they can do that. 

Ms. BASS. And I certainly understand the individual interests 

that it protects, the individual artists create or whatever, but I 

don’t know how that helps, and maybe you can elaborate on your 

own opinion about how that helps the public interest. 

Ms. PALLANTE. Well, I think the constitutional equation is so elegant because it has a two-step process that authors are 

incentivized to create because they get a copyright that they can 

then license. And then we are richer as a Nation, maybe not immediately but over time because of the great, rich, robust mix of 

works that we get out of copyrights. So the reason that copyright 

lawyers love copyrights so much is because they were English majors or poets or film students or something at some point in time 

that the content is just so important. 

And there’s a place for free content. There’s a place for content 

where people don’t want to sell it, but they just want credit. But 

there’s also a place for content where people think that their copyright should be meaningful. 

Ms. BASS. Well, there is content, and then there is technology, 

so part of the debate is over the technological aspect of it, right? 

Ms. PALLANTE. That’s right. 

Ms. BASS. And some people believe that copyright inhibits innovation and all the different devices that have been created. I would 

like to know your thoughts on that. 

Ms. PALLANTE. I have never thought that copyright inhibits innovation. I have always seen it and I have learned it in this way, but 

I think it has been true in my 23 years as a copyright lawyer, it 

is an innovative law. It, itself, has adapted to all kinds of technology over time, from maps to iPads, so that the format is not so 

important, it’s the ability of the law to continue to protect, and 

that’s why we are, I think, having the conversation today. How do 
61 

I get that right for the next great copyright act? That’s the right 

equation, I agree. 

Ms. BASS. Thank you. 

I yield back. 

Mr. COBLE. I thank the lady. 

The Chair recognizes the gentlelady from Texas, Ms. Sheila Jackson Lee, for 5 minutes. 

Ms. JACKSON LEE. You may be seeing the rainbow at the end of 

the tunnel here. 

Let me thank the Chairman and the Ranking Member for this. 

Mr. WATT. Actually, the Ranking Member is the rainbow because 

I deferred to everybody. 

Ms. JACKSON LEE. Oh, you haven’t done your questions? The 

rainbow is yet to come. 

Mr. COBLE. Hopefully within 5 minutes. 

Ms. JACKSON LEE. The Chairman has spoken, but he is also very 

gracious. 

First, I’m glad that we are creating a record for something that 

I believe is enormously important. And that is to protect our greatest asset: creativity and the genius of the American People. And I 

know that you have done this well. Thank you for your service. 

I’m going to try and have some rapid-fire questions, and I thank 

you for bearing with me. On the sequester, can you give any quick, 

quick answer as to whether or not, and in what, you will be facing 

will impact your work? 

Ms. PALLANTE. So we’re worried about creating a backlog, where 

we have now cleaned that out. But more importantly, I think we 

are hitting the sequestration at a time when we are actually under 

pressure to do more things, and those are the not things that necessarily will be fundable from our fee schedule. In other words, if 

you want us to fund everything that we do, including databases for 

the public, and we have to put that on the backs of songwriters and 

poets, copyright registration is going to go from $30 to $50 to hundreds and hundreds of dollars. And it is a voluntary system. So 

we’re trying to work in the mix—— 

Ms. JACKSON LEE. So there will be an impact, and particularly 

as it relates to backlog for those who least might be able to. 

Ms. PALLANTE. And the ability of the office to modernize. 

Ms. JACKSON LEE. Let me then now proceed with a series of 

questions. You have recommended to move from a 50-plus to a— 

50-plus from its current term life of 70 years that relates to copyright as relates to authors. Can you just quickly comment on that? 

Ms. PALLANTE. Why would I do that? So it is life plus 70 now, 

and what I am suggesting is that the burden is always on the user 

to find the copyright owner and get permission, but in a life plus 

70 scenario, which is becoming the global standard, what ends up 

happening is that copyright owners go missing, and the objectives 

of the copyright system get a little bit weaker, or they are a little 

out of focus. In a life plus 70 scenario, you’re not talking about the 

creator anymore; you’re talking about an heir or a successor downstream. Because the Berne Convention standard is life plus 50, and 

we are Berne-plus, as many countries are, we have the ability to 

say, we’re going to give you that extra 20 years, but you have to 

assert your interest at some point. 
62 

Ms. JACKSON LEE. So you want to keep the vitality in the privilege. 

Ms. PALLANTE. I think that the burden could shift to the user at 

the very end. 

Ms. JACKSON LEE. And my only concern—— 

Ms. PALLANTE. I’m sorry, to the owner. 

Ms. JACKSON LEE. And my only concern is I want to make sure 

to protect—writers may not be the most prosperous—we always 

view them as being prosperous, so make sure that person is disconnected, is not biased—— 

Ms. PALLANTE. Right. 

Ms. JACKSON LEE [continuing]. In this process. But let me, because I have a short period of time. I will think about your answer 

and I understand the answer. 

Can you tell me—you asked us to look at the big picture, in the 

course of looking at that—and I tend to agree with that. It is a big 

picture and big work. Where, in your perspective, report, or thinking do you help the little guys, who I think, again, are a vital part 

of our economy? 

Ms. PALLANTE. Thank you so much for that question. They are 

my entire impetus for my recommendation to this Subcommittee. 

They have been lost in the conversation. We hear from them all the 

time. We need them to make a living out of creativity. So they 

should be the focus. 

Ms. JACKSON LEE. Okay. And may I build on that by saying you 

mention orphan works? And where do you think Congress needs to 

go on that issue? 

Ms. PALLANTE. I think that needs a legislative solution. And this 

Committee has been very active on that issue, and that is one of 

the things I think is more ripe than others. 

Ms. JACKSON LEE. Would you give us a hook on specifically what 

you think is one of the issues that we need to be looking at in that 

overall issue? 

Ms. PALLANTE. In orphan works? 

Ms. JACKSON LEE. Yes. 

Ms. PALLANTE. Well, again, it doesn’t serve the objectives of the 

copyright system if a good-faith user has come forward trying to do 

everything possible to use the work but cannot find the copyright 

owner because they don’t exist anymore, or they just have disappeared, often because they are not the actual creator, but they 

are an heir or a successor to a company. So you need to alleviate 

some of the pressure that has built up in the copyright system, the 

gridlock in the marketplace, and provide a solution that will let 

people move forward narrowly, while protecting, for example, the 

situation where the creator suddenly does show up. And maybe 

they showed up because somebody has now used their work; how 

do you make sure they are paid? 

Ms. JACKSON LEE. Let me thank you for your work and your responses, thank you. 

Ms. PALLANTE. My pleasure. 

Mr. COBLE. I thank the gentlelady. 

We save the best for last, the Ranking Member, the gentleman 

from North Carolina, is recognized. 
63 

Mr. WATT. Thank you, thank you, and I thank all my colleagues 

for all the wonderful questions that they have already asked, and 

I’ll try to wrap it up quickly because I know you’ve been here for 

a long time, given all the breaks and all of the Members who had 

to ask questions. 

I was wondering whether there is anybody who is tracking the 

money that is offshore as a result of the United States not having 

a performance right. Do we know how much money is still offshore 

that U.S. artists are not able to import? 

Ms. PALLANTE. Actually, thank you so much, because we have 

not talked about that enough. Our performers get hit twice. They 

don’t get the full public performance right here, and then they 

don’t get to collect the money that other countries collect who do 

have a public performance rate that is more full than ours, because 

they say, we don’t have to distribute it, because we don’t have to 

recognize you because your country doesn’t have reciprocity on this 

issue. I don’t know the dollar amount. I’m sure that the industry 

tracks it. 

Mr. WATT. You think the industry is tracking it, okay. 

In your testimony, you mentioned certain preconditions, such as 

registration, that limit remedies available to aggrieved creators 

and how this potentially places an undue burden on the individuals 

in most need who are least likely to be aware of those preconditions, especially authors and photographers. Can you just expand on how you would address that? 

Ms. PALLANTE. Well, I would like to have a conversation about 

it with this Committee because it’s a very nuanced issue. Essentially what the law requires, in order to have statutory—in order 

to be able to elect statutory damages, you must register in a timely 

way. Those who don’t know about the provision do not do so; therefore, they are limited to actual damages, which is another way of 

saying that the very people who need statutory damages the most 

probably don’t have access to them. And is that equation meaningful? How do we fix—do we recalibrate that? 

Mr. WATT. So, I mean, are you advocating doing away with the 

registration requirement? How can you address that? 

Ms. PALLANTE. I didn’t go that far, but it has been studied before, and I think the other side of that issue is that by requiring 

registration as a condition of statutory damages, you essentially 

have put in place a filter limiting the number of lawsuits that will 

come forward. What has happened over time is that the corporations who know to register can use that statutory damage provision 

as a club to get the kinds of settlements that they want, but again, 

what do we do about the authors who need help the most? If they 

need statutory damages, why do we have a condition? 

Mr. WATT. So that relates to another issue: individual artists, authors, small folks really not that active in these debates. What do 

you see as their main concerns? And is there some way to bring 

those smaller people to the debate, or do we have enough horses 

to make it too complicated already? 

Ms. PALLANTE. Well, I think, in a way, what you’re asking me 

is do the associations who visit us here in Washington speak for 

everybody? They speak for a lot of people, but I know, for example, 

when I travel and I go to smaller cities, like Nashville or New Orle-
64 

ans, I meet creators, the entire town is based around spending your 

life creating. And they just see us as a proxy for everything that’s 

wrong with copyright, so could you do this? Could you do that? 

Could you wave a magic wand? But they just want to be able to 

make a living, and I think the public interest part of that is we 

want them to do that. So if people aren’t making a living from their 

creativity, we’re going to suffer as a country. That’s the beauty of 

copyright law, that it allows that kind of culture. 

Mr. WATT. That’s probably a good statement to end this hearing 

on, Mr. Chairman. I know I’ve got a little bit more time, but I don’t 

think anybody could say it more eloquently than she just said it, 

so I’m going to yield back. 

Mr. COBLE. Thank you. 

I want to express my thanks to two entities: number one, the 

Register, for your very vital testimony, and number two, I want to 

thank those in the audience, who spent most of the afternoon with 

us. 

Your presence indicates to us that you have more than a casual 

interest in this very significant issue. 

Without objection, all Members will have 5 legislative days to 

submit additional written questions for the witnesses or additional 

materials for the record. 

This hearing stands adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 5:50 p.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.] 
(65) 

A P P E N D I X 

MATERIAL SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING RECORD
66 

Approximately two weeks ago, Register Pallante participated in 

the Horace S. Manges Lecture at the Columbia Law School in New 

York. Her remarks, which are posted on the committee's website, cover 

a wide range of issues challenging our copyright laws, and she proposes 

what could be a blueprint for our next great copyright act. Her prepared 

testimony today also aptly notes that Congress must ultimately consider 

what does and does not belong under a copyright owner's control in the 

digital age. 

Much of my career has been dedicated to developing our 

intellectual property laws. Issues related to the digital platform have 

been the most difficult to resolve, and I welcome the Register's thoughts 

on how we can best address today's conflicts so that our copyright laws 

will benefit generations to come. I have no doubt that the digital 

revolution has taken hold and in order to continue to foster creativity and 

growth our intellectual property laws should facilitate an environment 

for creativity and innovation. 

Register Pallante, what you suggest will take some time and there 

is no guarantee the Subcommittee will agree to undertake such a big 
67 

f 

step, but if we do, I can assure you that you will be a key part of the 

effort. 

One aspect of your testimony that I found most interesting are your 

thoughts on the role of authors and their interests with respect to the 

public's interests. I hope you have the opportunity today to explain how 

those two interests can be mutually inclusive in the digital age. I also 

hope you have an opportunity to clarifY to whom you are referring when 

you mention authors and the public, and how other copyright 

stakeholders fit into this puzzle. These clarifications are critical if we 

truly intend to move this discussion forward. 

Register Pallante, thank you again for your work to enhance 

intellectual property rights in America. I appreciate your effort to 

participate in today's hearing, and [ look forward your testimony. 

I reserve the balance of my time. 
68 

Statement of Ranking Member Melvin Watt 

Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the 

Internet 

Hearing on 

The Register's Call for Updates to U.S. Copyright Law 

March 20, 2013 

Thank you, M1'. Chairman, 

1 want to begin by thanking our witness, Maria Pallante, for her 

service to date, She and her staff have been invaluahle resources to the 

Subcommittee and arc to be commended for their expertise, 

prcrlc:;si(mallisim and impartiality, 

The ,,,odd is changing. Remarkable developments in technology 

and the Internet have enabled society to change at an unprecedented 

pace. But these efficiencies have called into question the effectiveness 

of our Jaws both in protecting cherished values and in promoting 

continued hmovation. As a nation, we are re-evaluating laws in a 

number of areas. For example, we are re-evaluating laws: 
69 

,. to ensure that top current and former U.S. officials (including 

the Vice President, the First Lady, Secretary Clinton, and 

most recently, former President George W. Bush) do not 

have their private information obtained and disseminated 

without 

• to prevent foreign hackers from infiltrating our ne,vsrooms; 

e to balance law enforcement needs with the sanctity of stored 

communications; 

.. to determine whether computer fraud laws are unacceptably 

vague, and 

• Lo shore up the se(~urllv of our critical infrastructures U.5'41II," 

cyber-attack. 

Each of these reevaluations is compelled innovations which. when 

misllsed, can lead 10 unintended (even devastating) consequences. 

Copyright law and policy is no different The digital era has 

introduced some unique challenges for copyright owners and users, and 

exacerbated some pre-existing ones. Even the rulemaking process 
70 

designed to balance the intersecting interests of copyright law with 

technological advances and public access has come under attack. Most 

recently. for example, Chairman GoodlaUc and Ranking Member 

Conyers, introduced the "Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless 

Competition Act," which I was pleased to cosponsor. In the aftermath, 

calls for an upheaval of copyright law began appearing in the press and 

the blogosphere. Although those calls for widespread copyright reform 

coincided with the call to action oftlle Register of Copyright, they 

should not be driving us to action because 1 do not believe that policy 

should be dictated and petitions. Although valuable and 

important to help create a climate tor political action, polls and petitions 

should not determine the substance of the changes we make" but should 

considered with a multitude of other factors and voices and 

accorded appropriate weight. 

While I agree with 1'l/ls. Pallante"s central orenu:,c that it's time to 

deliberatively update our copyright regime to meet the challenges of the 

21 Century, 1 also strongly believe that there are some things both 
71 

Congress and the relevant industries can and should do sooner to address 

some ofthe imbalances that have developed in the digital environment 

First, I think we must redouble our efforts to ensure, whether through 

legislation, public education, or stakeholder negotiations, that the core 

purpose of copyright-which is to promote the public interest 

ensuring creators have the incentive to create - is reinforced by enabling 

an artists (whether photographers, musicians, composers, performers, 

lyricists, actors or other segments of the creative community) to be able 

to forge a livelihood from the new distribution channels through which 

consumers increasingly enjoy their creations. 

'nnv .. iaht law should not stifle innovation, but it MUST stimulate 

the creativity upon which innovation depends. It is no accident that 

new, modernized platforms and technologies seek to exploit artistic 

works. At root, a Kindle is useless without the literary works of authors; 

the I-Pod would be worthless and Pandora would not exist without the 

musical works they deliver; and Netflix 'would not continue to thrive 

without the catalogue of films in its reservoir. In short, consumers crave 

4 
72 

content. And, to continue providing quality content the creative 

community must enjoy the just rewards contemplated by the 

Constitution. 

Second, L think the time is long overdue for Congress to recognize 

a performance right in sound recordings. To do so requires no further 

To not do so, prolongs this longstanding inequity and keeps 

us out with the international community. Similarly, I think we 

have a sufficient body of ev idence on which to cran a legislativc 

solution to the "orphan works" problem. Addressing this problem \vill 

users comfort that they will not face infringement claims from 

unlmown, unidentified rights holders despite diligent efi()fts to locate 

them. 

Me Chairman, there may be some other specific an~as on which 

Congress ean or should take immediate action because either the record 

is sufficiently complete or the stakes are too high to do nothing or to 

delay needlessly. But I will stop here so that we can hear from our 

5 
73 

f 

Register her views and recommendations on the content and process for 

the "Next Great Copyright Act. 

1 yield back. 

6 
74 

Response to Questions for the Record from the Honorable Maria A. 

Pallante, Register of Copyrights, United States Copyright Office 
75 

Bob Goodlatte 

June 25,2013 

Page 2 

Over the past several years, streaming of copyrighted works has become a major 

means by which copyright owners provide online access to sporting events, television 

programs, movies and music. Customers now have multiple ways to legally access 

copyrighted content from streaming websites such as Hulu or Spotify, whether 

through their televisions, smart phones, tablets or video consoles. Indeed, video 

streaming traffic is among the fastest growing areas of the Internet and according to 

some estimates now accounts for more than one-quarter of all Internet traffic 2 To 

put this growth into context, the popular video streaming site YouTube recently 

announced that its more than I billion unique users watch over six billion hours of 

video each month, which according to the site, "is almost an hour for every person on 

earth.'" Clearly, as technology and computer bandwidth increase, streaming of 

copyrighted works will only continue to grow as a critical component of the online 

digital marketplace. 

Unfortunately, there is a disparity in the way in which our current criminal 

copyright law penalizes violations of the public performance right (implicated by 

streaming activities) and violations of the distribution and reproduction rights. This 

disparity may have once been of less consequence but is today a major problem. 

Under current law, prosecutors may pursue felony charges in the case of illegal 

reproductions or distri butions of copyrighted works by willful infringers for profit, 

but are generally limited only to misdemeanor charges when those same works are 

illegally streamed, even where such conduct is large scale, willful and commercially 

motivated" As a result, prosecutors have little incenti ve to file charges for illegal 

streaming, or they have reason to pursue only those cases where the rights of 

reproduction and distribution are also at issue. This lack of parity neither reflects nor 

serves the developing marketplace for streamed copyrighted content. 

I therefore fully support efforts to update penalties for illegal streaming so that 

prosecutors will have more effective options available in cases of willful, criminal 

infringement. To the extent there is any lingering confusion as to the importance of 

011 H.R. 3261 Before the H. Comill. 011 the Judiciar~y. 112th Congress (2011) (statement of Maria 

Pallante, Rcg. of Copyrights and Dir. of U.S. Copyright Office), available at 

hnp:llwww.copyright.gov/docs/regstatlI1611.html 

EnvisionaL Technical Ueport: ,,..]11 Fstimate oJfnjdnging L,'se of the Internet 3.19 (2011) CEyery 

recent report which examines the recent past and immediate future of internet usage ... identifies 

streaming video as the fastest growing segment of bandwidth consllmption \vorldwide. '') 

1 YouTube Statistics, alJQj/ahie at http://www.voutube.com/vt/press/statistics.html(last yisited 

June 21, 2013) 

,1 See 17 US.C § 506(a); 18 U.SC § 2319 
76 

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