Re:Create issued the following statement from Executive Director Joshua Lamel following the U.S. Copyright Office’s submission of two letters to Congress with conclusions from its standard technical measure (STM) consultations:

“Today the Copyright Office affirmed that technical mandates have no place in our government and that voluntary processes to identify technical measures have already successfully occurred to handle copyrighted material online. We are relieved that the Office has rejected Big Content’s absurd notion that the government should control basic facets of how technology works ‘[g]iven the ever-increasing diversity and complexity of the online environment and rapidly evolving technologies…’ Consumers, creators and businesses already face significant challenges in uploading creative content to the web.

“At the same time, we have concerns with the Office’s suggestions on changes to the DMCA. Since they’ve already confirmed that technical measures come together via collaboration and consensus, it’s troubling that the suggested changes would effectively place a thumb on the scales in favor of powerful content rightsholders and against online creators and consumers.”