A few weeks ago I posted "Congress and Copyrights: A Busy Legislative Year," in which I summarized three Congressional bills targeting copyright infringement/infringers:
- The Intellectual Property Enhanced Criminal Enforcement Act of 2007 (H.R. 3155-IH),
- The Intellectual Property Enforcement Act of 2007 (S.2317), and
- The College Opportunity and Affordability Act of 2007 (H.R.4137).
Last week, Congress was at it again, with the introduction of yet more legislation amending the Copyright Act, as summarized below.
- Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property ("PRO IP") Act of 2007
H.R.4279 was introduced in the House on December 5, 2007, by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI). The bill would, among other things, amend 17 U.S.C. § 410 by adding a new paragraph (c)(1): "A certificate of registration satisfies the requirements of section 411 and section 412 regardless of any inaccurate information contained in the certificate, unless (A) the inaccurate information was included on the application for copyright registration with knowledge that it was inaccurate; and (B) the inaccuracy of the information, if known, would have caused the Register of Copyrights to refuse registration."
The bill would also amend § 504 as follows:
"(1) Except as provided by clause (2) of this subsection, the copyright owner may elect, at any time before final judgment is rendered, to recover, instead of actual damages and profits, an award of statutory damages for all infringements involved in the action, with respect to any one work, for which any one infringer is liable individually, or for which any two or more infringers are liable jointly and severally, in a sum of not less than $750 or more than $30,000 as the court considers just. [[For the purposes of this subsection, all the parts of a compilation or derivative work constitute one work.]] A copyright owner is entitled to recover statutory damages for each copyrighted work sued upon that is found to be infringed. The court may make either one or multiple awards of statutory damages with respect to infringement of a compilation, or of works that were lawfully included in a compilation, or a derivative work and any preexisting works upon which it is based. In making a decision on the awarding of such damages, the court may consider any facts it finds relevant relating to the infringed works and the infringing conduct, including whether the infringed works are distinct works having independent economic value."
Title III of the bill proposes to established within the Executive Office of the President the Office of the United States Intellectual Property Enforcement Representative, whose job it would be to serve as the principal adviser to the President on domestic and international intellectual property enforcement policy, among other things.
The bill would also require the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, in consultation with the Director General of the United States and Foreign Commercial Service, to appoint 10 intellectual property attaches to serve in United States embassies or other diplomatic missions. The 10 appointments shall be in addition to personnel serving in the capacity of intellectual property attache at United States embassies or other diplomatic missions on the date of the enactment of this Act.
Comments:
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§ 411 and § 412 deal with lawsuits for copyright infringement, so the new legislation would, ostensibly, prevent lawsuits being dismissed or adjudged in favor of defendants based on minor inaccuracies in author's copyright registrations.
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The underlined section shown above would allow a court to make multiple damages awards for the infringement of a single "compilation," something not allowed under the current statute. A compilation is a work formed by the collection and assembling of preexisting materials or of data that are selected, coordinated, or arranged in such a way that the resulting work as a whole constitutes an original work of authorship. The term includes collective works. Databases are examples of compilations. Some of the tables of data on this blog would be examples of compilations, although the data on the tables (i.e., "facts") would not be protected.
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The PRO IP bill has bi-partisan support:
Rep. Howard Berman [D-CA]
Rep. Steven Chabot [R-OH]
Rep. Steve Cohen [D-TN]
Rep. Tom Feeney [R-FL]
Rep. Robert Goodlatte [R-VA]
Rep. Darrell Issa [R-CA]
Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee [D-TX]
Rep. Ric Keller [R-FL]
Rep. Adam Schiff [D-CA]
Rep. Lamar Smith [R-TX]
Rep. Robert Wexler [D-FL]
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