D.C. Discusses Intellectual Property
The United States House of Representatives today will focus on copyright issues that affect artists as its Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property plans to discuss moral rights, termination rights, resale royalties, and copyright term. D.C.’s planned debate of art copyright issues was reported by The Hill yesterday and flagged by a MALC advisor Monday night.
Of particular note, the Subcommittee plans to discuss the American Royalties Too (ART) Act, which aims to ensure artists receive royalty payments wherever their work is sold around the world. MALC reported on this issue back in March. There are currently both House and Senate versions of the bill: H.R.4103 ; S.2045. (Our U.S. Senator Edward Markey was an original co-sponsor of the House bill when he served as a U.S. Representative and he currently co-sponsors the Senate version).
The subcommittee will also discuss section 203 of the 1976 Copyright Act, which allows authors or their representatives to terminate grants of copyright assignments and licenses that were made on or after January 1, 1978. There is debate surrounding the law’s impact on recording artists and the advocacy group Future of Music Coalition has weighed in with testimony in strong support of protecting recording artists’ rights under section 203.
As always, MALC stands firm in its support of artists’ rights and is always concerned about any potential changes to copyright law. We will closely monitor D.C.’s discussion and all subsequent development.
Quick Links:
Article in The Hill: http://thehill.com/policy/technology/overnights/212213-overnight-tech-house-panel-to-appraise-art-copyrights
MALC post on royalty bill for artists: http://artistsunderthedome.org/malc/news/droit-de-suite-the-fight-for-artists-rights-goes-national/
H.R. 4103 details: https://beta.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/4103/cosponsors?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22H.R.+4103%22%5D%7D
S.2045 details: https://beta.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/senate-bill/2045/cosponsors
Copyrigth Act, section 203 details: http://www.copyright.gov/docs/203.html
Future of Music Coalation Congressional testimony: https://www.futureofmusic.org/filing/testimony-%E2%80%9Cmoral-rights-termination-rights-resale-royalty-and-copyright-term-%E2%80%9D-hearing