New Congress, Familiar Issues
Congress is back in session, and its membership looks significantly different than it did just one month ago. But the copyright issues it addresses may seem very familiar.
Orphan works and open access bills generated tremendous attention from colleges and rightsholders in 2006, but legislators failed to vote on either bill before their session ended. Now that membership has shifted from a Republican to a Democratic majority, the question is: will the new 110th Congress address similar bills in 2007?
Miriam Nisbet, legal counsel for the American Library Association (ALA) says she expects these bills will resurface in Congress. “Copyright is not really a partisan issue.”
Senator Joseph Lieberman, the new chairman of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, may play a pivotal role in keeping his open access bill alive. He and Senator John Cornyn co-sponsored the Federal Research Public Access Act of 2006, which never made it to a vote by the previous Congress. The original bill, if passed, would have required researchers funded by federal agencies with research budgets of $100 million or more, to post their manuscripts for free public access.
“I think we’re going to see Senators Cornyn and Lieberman reintroduce their bill on open access in the next couple of months,” said Nisbet. ”And I think we’re going to see an introduction on the House side as well.”
The former Orphan Works Act may also resurface soon. The original bill, which attempted to reduce the risk of using copyrighted material when rightsholders cannot be found, drew criticism from photographers and graphic artists concerned that it would not adequately protect their copyrights.
Allan Adler, the Association of American Publishers (AAP) vice president for Legal & Government Affairs, said that he expects the new Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, Senator Patrick Leahy, an avid photographer, to take a strong interest in this legislation.
According to Adler and Nisbet, the new Congress may also take up other familiar copyright topics, such as an amendment to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to allow for fair use exceptions, and legislation that would tackle the issue of sovereign immunity.
As a result of a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1999, state entities, such as universities, cannot be sued for damages if they violate someone’s copyright or patent rights unless the state agrees to waive sovereign immunity. Those same entities can, however, pursue damages for the violation of their own IP rights. Adler says the ranking minority member of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Lamar Smith, has expressed support in the past for legislation that would “re-level the playing field.”
