July 2018

This month's newsletter includes links to information:

  • for copyright registration owners on when to update or supplement their registration;
  • policy updates on copyright fair use and educating lawmakers on aspects of copyright law;

Authors' Alliance Update on Copyright Registration
This month we wanted to include a useful article for copyright registration owners.  The recent newsletter from Authors' Alliance includes the article "When to Update or Supplement a Copyright Registration."  Check out the article for more information.

Authors' Alliance is a non-profit organization that works to further the public interest in facilitating widespread access to works of authorship by assisting and representing authors who want to disseminate knowledge and products of the imagination broadly.  The organization has an ongoing series of resources on copyright fundamentals.  This article is the most recent post in the series.

Copyright Law Policy Updates

Adding to the Conversation on the Copyright Fair Use Doctrine 
Fair use is a legal doctrine within the copyright law that allows the public to use copyrighted works and material without the permission of the copyright owner. For those interested in an international policy discussion on fair use, check out the article "Fair use and Its Global Paradigm Evolution." by Peter K. Yu, which appears in a recent issue of the Infojustice Roundup.

Abstract from the Roundup: "Legal paradigms change in response to political, economic, social, cultural and technological conditions. While these paradigms have moved from developed to developing countries, they rarely move in the opposite direction. Nevertheless, some transplants from developed countries do involve legal paradigms that align well with the needs, interests, conditions and priorities of developing countries. A case in point is the transplant of the fair use model in U.S. copyright law, which has attracted considerable debate, research and policy attention in the past few decades."

For further explanation of what fair use is, please take a look at one of our prior newsletter updates at: http://old.org/index.php/recent-updates/prior-updates/106-fair-use-a-creative-control.

IIPSJ Involved: Roundtable on the Hill
Earlier this month, IIPSJ's own Professor Lateef Mtima participated on a panel with Lita Rosario, Principal –WYZ Girl Entertainment Consulting, and others to educate policy makers' and congressional staffers about the Music Modernization Act and compensating legacy artists for their songs, service and important contributions to society.

The panel discussion, "Music IP: Are Music Companies Holding Our Heritage Hostage?" was hosted by Partnership for Innovation and Empowerment (PIE) on July 9 at the Canon House Office Building.  The panel was moderated by Kevin B. Kimble, Esq., Executive Director – American Innovation and Opportunity Fund and other panelists included: Sasha Moss, Tech Policy Federal Affairs Manager & Policy Counsel – R Street Institute and Meredith Filak Rose, JD, Policy Council – Public Knowledge. The panel spoke before a standing room audience, and also responded to questions ranging from how independent artists can publicly perform copyrighted material to how schools can use copyrighted material for educational purposes, as well as how Legacy Artists might obtain compensation for their work.