On November 2,
2016, The Wall Street Journal published
an article [Subscription Required] connecting Google’s lobbying efforts and
turnover at the Copyright Office. Maria Pallante served more than five years as
the U.S. Register of Copyrights before resigning last month. Ms. Pallante
opposed several efforts that Google supported, including the FCC’s set-top box proposal
and a Justice Department interpretation of copyright licensing. The article
states the following:
There is some circumstantial evidence that Google’s
lobbying influence was brought to bear in removing Ms. Pallante, though both
Google and Ms. Pallante declined to talk to us. Google’s business model is
essentially making money off other people’s content, and the company’s strategy
has been to infringe on copyrighted material like books and fight it out later
in court. The copyright office administers laws that protect owners.
The new Librarian
of Congress Carla
Hayden may be hiring new employees to revamp a Copyright Office that
is in need of modernization, but Ms. Pallante was a dedicated public servant
with a thoughtful perspective on copyright. Given Ms. Hayden’s former
relationship with Google, the article says that she may have pushed out Ms. Pallante
and her opposing views. But let’s hope this decision was made in the interest of protecting copyright and modernizing the Copyright Office to achieve
an easily accessible, efficient, and reliable registration and recordation
system.
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