Highlights from Re:Create Coalition Members’ Comments on IPEC Joint Strategic Plan WASHINGTON—As the U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator (IPEC) formulates its Joint Strategic Plan for 2019-2021, the Re:Create Coalition and a number of its members and allies filed comments about the importance of balancing the interests of rights holders with innovation and the creative economy. See below for a compilation…

Stairway To Heaven Case Forces RIAA To Twist Own Position. In another interesting twist in the high profile “Stairway to Heaven” copyright case, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) filed an amicus brief asking the Ninth Circuit to reconsider a September decision complaining that the current ruling “badly overprotects.” According to a report by Law360, the case now has…

Copyright Office Releases Section 1201 Exemptions. The Copyright Office unveiled new DMCA Section 1201 exemptions on October 26, allowing Americans greater freedom to do things like fix smartphones and repair car software. TechCrunch’s Devin Coldewey posted a helpful backgrounder on Section 1201 and a list of the new exemptions. He wrote that copyright law is “slowly changing as the government…

Court Confirms Georgia’s Laws Not Protected By Copyright. On October 19, a federal appeals court ruled that annotations of Georgia’s legal code are “intrinsically public domain material” and cannot be copyrighted. The Associated Press explained the case’s background after the state of Georgia sued an internet nonprofit for allowing online access to Georgia’s laws to people for free. “The resulting…

Re:Create Op-Ed: Trade Deals Should Better Serve Public Interest. With the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) trade deal falling short of fully guaranteeing fair use, Re:Create Executive Director Joshua Lamel called for the USTR to place a higher priority on reflecting America’s legal standards in a Morning Consult op-ed. “Negotiations can take on an almost-transactional nature as USTR focuses on business rather…

By Joshua Lamel, Executive Director of the Re:Create Coalition For many in the United States, a renegotiated North American Free Trade Agreement makes a lot of sense. The original agreement, dating back to the Clinton administration, was a predecessor to the emergence of the digital economy. The negotiations presented both hopeful opportunity and risks for various stakeholders, including internet companies,…

President Signs Marrakesh Treaty Into Law. On Wednesday, President Trump signed into law the Marrakesh Treaty Implementation Act. The signing took place five years after the international copyright community adopted the treaty, which will facilitate access to published works for persons who are blind, visually impaired or otherwise print disabled, according to a Library of Congress blog. Following passage of…

Libraries: Keep Copyright Office In Library Of Congress. An article in American Libraries Magazine from Alan S. Inouye urged libraries and librarians to contact their representative and oppose S. 1010, which would remove the Copyright Office from the Library of Congress. American Libraries Association (ALA) copyright counsel Jonathan Band was a witness at last week’s hearing, where he stated that…

**SPECIAL EDITION** Important copyright policy debates took place on Capitol Hill this week as the Senate Rules Committee held a hearing on the Register of Copyrights Selection and Accountability Act (S.1010) and the House Judiciary Committee took up the CASE Act (H.R. 3945). Members of the Re:Create Coalition, including several who delivered testimony at the two hearings, along with other…

Music Modernization Act Viewed As Improvement Over Earlier Version. Following Senate passage of the Music Modernization Act on September 19, multiple organizations weighed in welcoming the bill and its “substantial revisions” to support the public domain. Public Knowledge noted that previous versions of the bill would have prevented pre-1923 recordings from entering the public domain until 2067 and credited Senator…