US copyright chief calls for complete overhaul

March 26, 2013 - by Ariel Bogle - Melville House

Register of Copyrights Maria Pallante

There’s no pretending the US copyright system is in good shape, or even particularly useful in its current incarnation.
Although the full act has not been reformed since 1976, plenty of additions have been tacked on, including the contentious bill designed to address the changes caused by the internet, the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA). Keep in mind, even this act was created in 1996. Indeed, the law is so stuck in the past that the former Register of Copyrights Barbara Ringer, who worked on the 1976 revision, subsequently dismissed it as “good 1950 copyright law.”
Last week, the current Register of Copyrights, Maria Pallante, appeared before the US House of Representatives and called for an overhaul. She began,

“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 affect every part of the copyright ecosystem, including the public at large…I 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.”

Anne Elizabeth Moore in Al Jazeera writes that Pallante’s desire for reform is not only possible, but desperately needed. She says, “as a means to protect independent cultural producers, in other words, US copyrights are downright laughable.”
Pallante suggested in her speech that everything should be on the table, from the first sale doctrine, to orphan works, to questions over the mass digitization of books.

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