In a win for libraries and their users, Maryland is the first in the nation to enact a state law ensuring that libraries can license e-books and audiobooks under the same terms available to consumers. The new law (Maryland House Bill 518) requires that publishers offer reasonable terms to public libraries when negotiating licenses for digital content. As the president of the Maryland Library…

Spotify Provides New Access To Music For Podcasts. Reggie Ugwu with The New York Times featured the “Black Girl Songbook” podcast to demonstrate the benefits of an innovative new music arrangement between Spotify and podcasters. The arrangement gives podcast publishers access to full songs in the platform’s music catalogue, which are difficult and expensive to attain on their own. “Unlike…

Biden Administration Supports IP Waiver To Help Fight COVID. U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai announced this week the Biden Administration’s support for waiving IP protections for COVID-19 vaccines. Citing the goal of getting “as many safe and effective vaccines to as many people as fast as possible,” Tai’s announcement stated: “This is a global health crisis, and the extraordinary circumstances…

Today, the Biden administration announced it will support a proposal at the World Trade Organization to waive patent protections for coronavirus vaccines, potentially enabling the production of generic options. Public Knowledge commends the administration for balancing its intellectual property policy with the health care needs of people seeking the vaccine. The following can be attributed to Meredith Rose, Senior Policy Counsel at…

Re:Create Members Press Copyright Office On Constitutional Concerns With CASE Act. This week, Re:Create joined with Public Knowledge, the Center for Democracy & Technology, R Street Institute and the Organization for Transformative Works to submit feedback to the Copyright Office urging it to acknowledge and address the unconstitutional aspects of the CASE Act and its “Copyright Claims Board” (CCB). The…

Twenty years ago, we saw the creation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. It was intended to modernize copyright law for the digital age. Instead, it made it much worse. Ordinary activities in the physical world — like loaning a copy of something, giving it away, or reselling it — are prohibited in the digital world. As media becomes increasingly…

TLDR: Across the country, small- and medium-sized companies rely on and benefit from balanced and certain intellectual property (IP) laws to innovate and build better businesses. That’s why this week’s celebration of World Intellectual Property Day provides a timely opportunity for U.S. policymakers to better appreciate the importance of such balance and certainty when crafting policy that applies to the emerging…

As part of the Copyright Office’s efforts to implement the CASE Act, it has asked for feedback on how to operate the “Copyright Claims Board” (CCB) and how it should try to prevent abuse of the system. The Center for Democracy and Technology joins Public Knowledge, Re:Create, the R Street Institute, and the Organization for Transformative Works in comments urging the…

SCOTUS Opinion Highlights The Importance Of Fair Use To Benefit The Public. Re:Create compiled key portions of the U.S Supreme Court’s majority opinion in the Google v. Oracle decision to demonstrate fair use’s importance in benefiting the public. Justice Breyer emphasized copyright law’s purpose to encourage innovation and promote creativity — not to create a “special reward.” Viral Video Helps…

Justice Stephen Breyer’s majority opinion highlights the importance of Fair Use to benefit the public, which is the key purpose of copyright law. See below for key findings from the opinion, illustrated by quotes from Breyer’s opinion. The purpose of copyright law is to encourage more innovation, not create a “special reward.” Breyer: “Copyright statutes and case law have made…