On April 26, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 1695, the Register of
Copyrights Selection and Accountability Act of 2017. The House should be commended for passing the bill. H.R. 1695 would restructure the Copyright
Office, increasing its autonomy from the Library of Congress while
preserving the Office’s status as a legislative agency. Restructuring of the
Office would improve its ability to implement technological upgrades and
enhance its capabilities in performing essential copyright registration and
recordation functions.
Specifically, H.R. 1695 would give the Copyright Office more
autonomy by making the Register of Copyrights appointed by the President –
rather than by the Librarian of Congress – and subject to Senate confirmation.
As amended by the House Judiciary Committee in March, H.R.1695 would establish a
selection process involving a committee comprised of Congressional leaders and
the Librarian of Congress. The committee would provide the President a list of
three or more possible nominees. The Committee also amended the bill to provide
that the Register can be removed only for cause.
FSF President May and I described the need for Copyright
Office modernization and the economic benefits of updating its administrative
functions in a January 31 letter to the House Judiciary
Committee. We reiterated the
importance of passing Copyright Office modernization legislation such as H.R.
1695 in our April 23 op-ed published in The
Hill: “Protect Intellectual Property Rights on World IP Day – and
Every Day.” Our op-ed cites December 2016
report findings by the International Intellectual Property Rights Alliance that
market participants with a main purpose to generate copyrighted content
employed over 5.5 million U.S. workers in 2015 alone. Those same market
participants added over $1.2 trillion in value to the U.S. economy in 2015. A
restructured Copyright Office operating a modernized recordation and
registration system would be likely be able to reduce search and other
administrative compliance costs for copyright holders and prospective copyright
holders, thereby reducing search and other transaction costs and enhancing
market values for copyrighted works.
Now having been passed by the House,
H.R. 1695 – the Register of Copyrights Selection and Accountability Act
of 2017 – is proceeding to the other chamber. Surely, this important
legislation merits prompt consideration by the Senate.
Posts
