The U.S. Department of Commerce wants congressional or...
The U.S. Department of Commerce wants congressional or regulatory attention on cellphone unlocking and on rate-setting standards for public performance of sound recordings by digital music services, it said in a so-called green paper released Wednesday on Copyright Policy, Creativity…
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and Innovation in the Digital Economy (http://1.usa.gov/15vOJd3). It backed reform of music licensing, with particular focus on the mechanical license for musical compositions, and also reiterated the administration’s calls to extend public performance rights for sound recordings to cover broadcasting, and adopting the same penalties for criminal streaming of copyrighted works to the public, as now exists for criminal reproduction and distribution. The report was authored by the department’s Internet Policy Task Force with input from the Patent and Trademark Office and the NTIA. IPTF will also seek further comment on improving the notice and takedown system under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the relevance and scope of the first-sale doctrine, and remixes, said the paper. “Ensuring that our copyright policy provides incentives for creativity while promoting innovation on the Internet is a critical and challenging task,” said Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker in the report. The 120-page report addressed a host of copyright issues, including the balance between protecting creative works and maintaining a free flow of information and the meaningful enforcement of copyright provisions in a digital environment. Public Knowledge took issue with several aspects of the report, including its lack of focus on essential limitations and exceptions and the costs of copyright enforcements, particularly upon users. “While the green paper makes a good faith effort to recognize the need for balanced copyright policy, in several areas it fails to recognize fully the negative effects of certain copyright enforcement policies on the public,” said Sherwin Siy, PK vice president-legal affairs, in a statement. The Center for Democracy and Technology had a similarly mixed reaction to the report, and said in a blog post that “the report offers more positive than negative in moving the conversation about digital copyrights forward” (http://bit.ly/1685gDi). CDT is concerned about the report’s request for proposals on improving the operation of the DMCA’s notice and takedown system, it said. “Free expression advocates will need to engage actively to counterbalance a possible push towards (for example) more ongoing content monitoring."