Copyright Office 2013 Annual Report
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u.s. copyright office fiscal 2013 annual report 2 12 15 Message from the Register Registration and Recordation Information and Education 4 14 16 Highlights Statutory Licensing Appendices 1 message from the register “We owe it to the next generation of creators and innovators and the public to plan for the future.” —register of copyrights, world creators summit, june 2013 Maria A. Pallante iscal 2013 was a year of great excitement and promise 1950s and 1960s and enacted in 1976. Its Internet overlay, in Priorities and Special Projects of the United States for both the copyright law and the Copyright the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, was enacted in Copyright Office, 2011–2013. Another project team solicited Office.F Review and examination of the current law was 1998, long before cloud storage, personal tablets, and comments and met with stakeholders to inform an no longer just a topic of discussion within copyright smartphone applications. Shortly thereafter, Rep. Bob upgrade of the Office’s information technology platforms, circles but the product of a full-fledged legislative Goodlatte, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, including with respect to copyright registration process within the United States Congress. As Congress announced the committee’s intention to assess the law. processes. This public dialogue was essential and considered its vision of a 21st-century copyright law, it The chairman invited me to testify before the committee, illuminating. Among other issues, it focused on possible became clear that the needs and goals of a 21st-century and during the course of fiscal 2013, held four additional strategies to update document recordation—still a paper- Copyright Office are an essential part of the discussion. policy hearings. This leadership is gratifying, because it based 20th-century system—and the digitization, Early in the year, I delivered the Horace S. Manges is Congress, and Congress alone, that has the authority searchability, and interoperability of Copyright Office Lecture at Columbia University Law School. I called for to weigh the public good and broader equities of records more generally. This work reflects the cooperative a comprehensive review of the copyright law in light authorship and access in the digital age. and energetic spirit that our staff is known for and the of widespread recognition that it is showing the strain Meanwhile, the Register’s Office continued its focus particular leadership of our Copyright Office chief of its age, and to ensure that any specific provisions on the operation and production of the Copyright Office operating officer, our chief information officer, and our or proposals for change would be analyzed with the itself. One project team began the first overarching Associate Register and Director of Registration Policy and balance and foresight that a larger legal framework revision of the Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practice. provides. The law as written was negotiated in the Practices in 30 years, a high-priority item that I identified u.s. copyright office | annual report 2013 2 message from the register Left, Maria A. Pallante, testifies before Congress about the state of the U.S. copyright law, March 20, 2013. In September 2013, the Copyright Office released a process related to free trade agreements signed into reach predetermined goals. That the Office nevertheless major report and recommendations regarding small law with Colombia, Korea, and Panama, and served on achieved such significant successes in the face of these copyright claims, conducted by the Office of the General U.S. delegations and negotiating teams for the proposed challenging circumstances is due to the dedication Counsel. The report recommends a voluntary system of Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement and the Trans- and professionalism of our staff and the talent and adjudication to be housed within the Office to resolve Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. participation of our stakeholder community. I look infringement claims likely to result in small monetary As always, the Office administered the copyright law forward to continuing our work together as we build the rewards. The Policy Office continued a study on a federal by conducting rulemakings, implementing regulations, 21st-century Copyright Office. resale royalty right for visual artists and invited public registering hundreds of thousands of copyright claims, comment in ongoing inquiries into orphan works, managing certain statutory licenses, and carrying out exceptions to the copyright law for libraries and archives, other responsibilities required by statute. and Copyright Office fees. We accomplished all this against a backdrop of Internationally, the Associate Register and Director of fiscal austerity and staffing shortfalls. The Office’s Register of Copyrights Policy and International Affairs joined the U.S. delegation base budget continued its disturbing decrease from Maria A. Pallante to a World Intellectual Property Organization diplomatic 2010 levels, and overall staffing levels suffered further conference in Marrakesh, Morocco, that adopted a reductions. Across-the-board federal spending cuts, historic treaty to improve access to copyrighted works better known as sequestration, resulted in existing by individuals who are blind, visually impaired, or print staff being compelled to take unpaid leave during the disabled. Staff also participated in a U.S. interagency spring and summer of the year, hampering our ability to u.s. copyright office | annual report 2013 3 united states copyright office highlights “The next great copyright act must be forward thinking but 577,000 Claims for registration Copyright flexible, and, no matter what, it Office processed must serve the public interest.” —register of copyrights, horace s. manges lecture, march 2013 9,672 Documents Copyright Office recorded he United States Copyright Office is the principal Works deposited with copyright registrations and these reductions, the Office processed more than 577,000 advisor to Congress on national and international acquired through the mandatory deposit provision of claims for registration and recorded 9,672 documents Tcopyright matters. It provides leadership and impartial the copyright law have helped to make the Library of containing hundreds of thousands of titles of works. expertise on copyright law and policy and administers Congress the largest library in the world. In fiscal 2013, Office staff answered 219,596 inquiries by phone and the national copyright system as set forth in the the Library obtained more than 641,000 copies of works email; retrieved and copied 2,290 copyright deposit Copyright Act. with a net value of $30 million through the copyright records for parties involved in litigation; and assisted The Office was founded in 1870, when Congress system. About half these works were acquired through 8,504 in-person visitors. removed copyright registration from the district courts registration; the other half arrived through mandatory The Office also provided critical law and policy and central ized it in the Library of Congress. In 1897, deposit. services in fiscal 2013, among them domestic and Congress established the Copyright Office as a separate In fiscal 2013, the Office continued to face serious international policy analysis; litigation support; department within the Library and created the position budgetary and staffing challenges. Since 2010, the Office assistance to courts and executive branch agencies; of Register of Copyrights to lead it. Today, the Office’s has experienced a reduction of nearly 10 percent to its participation on U.S. delegations to international registration system and its companion recordation base budget, and the number of employees remains meetings; and public information and education. Since system constitute the world’s largest database of below 400. In addition, across-the-board federal budget spring 2013, the Copyright Office has actively supported copyrighted works and copyright ownership information. cuts known as “sequestration” required all Library of an ongoing review by Congress of U.S. copyright law This database constitutes an unparalleled record of Congress employees, including Copyright Office staff, to that began following a major lecture by the Register of American cultural heritage. take unpaid leave in spring and summer 2013. Despite Copyrights at Columbia University Law School. u.s. copyright office | annual report 2013 4 highlights The Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet of the House Judiciary Committee hears testimony about the need to review the copyright law, May 16, 2013. The Copyright Office also continued to administer U.S. copyright law, noting that the last major revision of Register’s Call for Updates to U.S. Copyright Law.” statutory licenses in the copyright law, collecting, the law concluded in 1976. Although Congress has since Subsequently, in a speech at the Library of Congress managing, and dispersing royalty fees paid by cable updated the law, most notably in the Digital Millennium in recognition of World Intellectual Property Day, Rep. and satellite systems and providers of digital audio Copyright Act of 1998, policy making has not kept pace Goodlatte announced that the subcommittee would hold recording technology. In fiscal 2013, the Office collected with the evolution of technology and the copyright a comprehensive series of hearings on the copyright law. $315.5 million in royalty fees and distributed more