Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, this measure, entitled the Copyright Cleanup, Clarification, and Corrections Act, is a commonsense, proactive response to unintended errors and confusion in copyright law. This bill updates and improves the way the Copyright Office conducts its business by making some changes, mainly streamlining the copyright registry process by authorizing the Copyright Office to accept electronic signatures when users file documents. It also eliminates the requirement that the Copyright Office keep a hard copy of a directory they already make available to the public online. This hard copy has taken over several shelves in their office but is seldom consulted by the public. The measure before us also clarifies some ambiguities in the copyright code. For example, in 1997, Congress amended the copyright code to clarify that copyright owners do not forfeit their rights in a work if they distributed it prior to 1978 without a copyright notice. However, while Congress made this fix for musical works distributed by phonograph, it neglected to specifically identify dramatic and literary works that were also distributed by phonograph. We make that correction in this bill before us. Finally, it corrects in this measure a number of technical errors, just dotting the I's and crossing the T's. I support the legislation. I commend the committee that worked on it.”