Copyright Legislation

H.R. 801 "The Fair Copyright in Research Works Act"

Wasting no time in the 111th Congress, Rep. Conyers (D-MI), Chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary, introduced H.R. 801, “The Fair Copyright in Research Works Act,” on February 3, 2009. Unfortunately, this not-so-new bill seeking to amend copyright code and create a new category of copyright work differs only in bill number assigned — from its predecessor in the 110th Congress (H.R. 6845) (that ultimately died in the House Judiciary Committee).

And just as in the last Congress, H.R. 801 negates or reverses the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Public Access Policy currently in place, rolling back hard-fought progress on public access to taxpayer-funded NIH research on the Internet. The bill would effectively reverse the NIH Public Access Policy, as well as make it impossible for other federal agencies to put similar policies into place. Read more....

Orphan Works

Orphan Works are copyrighted works whose owners are difficult or even impossible to find. The U.S. Copyright Office issued a Notice of Inquiry on January 26, 2005 soliciting advice on the problem of orphan works. The Copyright Office explains, "Concerns have been raised that the uncertainty surrounding ownership of such works might needlessly discourage subsequent creators and users from incorporating such works in new creative efforts, or from making such works available to the public."