Even under normal circumstances, anyone can be forgiven for missing the memo that by the end of this month, the Librarian of Congress, Dr. Carla Hayden, will make her pick for the new Register of Copyrights. The process has been going for so long that I assume that at this stage Dr. Hayden has her choices down to a handful ...

I know it seems like we have ample government shenanigans to watch on TV right now, but in case you missed the real barn-burner yesterday, it was announced that Register of Copyrights Karyn Temple has been named as the next Senior Executive Vice President and Global General Counsel at the Motion Picture Association (MPA).  Why?  What were you paying attention to? You ...

While most attention will be understandably focused this week on the Senate Judiciary and the confirmation (or not) of Brett Kavanaugh, there is actually quite a bit of copyright law activity of note as the midterms approach. Register of Copyrights Selection and Accountability Act Hearings Scheduled Originally introduced in the House in March 2017 as H.R. 1695, this bill proposes ...

Photo by GlobalIP Okay.  I’m not remotely surprised that the EFF & Co. don’t like the bill H.R. 1695 to make the Register of Copyrights a presidential appointee rather than an employee of the Librarian of Congress.  And I’m way not surprised that they’ve written a post which only thinly veils this bill as a power grab by the Trump ...

I know I just wrote about the Copyright Office. But right after publishing Friday’s post, I saw that Librarian Hayden did a rather inscrutable thing. She had the LOC publish a three-question survey, using Survey Monkey, seeking public comment on the ideal qualities for the next Register of Copyrights.  Writing as a member of the public, and one who knows ...

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