7. Fair Use Act of 2007
Introduced as a stand-alone bill, HR1201, a bill "To amend title 17, United States Code, to promote innovation, to encourage the introduction of new technology, to enhance library preservation efforts, and to protect the fair use rights of consumers, and for other purposes."

• Bill Summary/Status
• Copy of Bill
  
• Cong. Boucher Floor Remarks at Bill's Introduction

8. Intellectual Property Enforcement Act of 2007

• Bill Summary and Status: S.2317
  Bill Summary and Status: S.522
  Bill Summary and Status: H.R. 3578
  
• Press Release on Bill

9. H.R.4128 Criminal Code Modernization and Simplification Act of 2007

• HR 4128 (see sections 676-679

10. H.R. 4789 Performance Rights Act
To provide parity in radio performance rights under title 17, United States Code, and for other purposes.

• Bill Text/Summary/Status

  Companion Senate bill (S2500)

• Bill Text/Summary Status

109th Congress (2005-2006)

1. U.S. Copyright Office Orphan Works Inquiry "The Copyright Office is examining issues raised by “orphan works,” i.e., copyrighted works whose owners are difficult or even impossible to locate. Concerns have been raised that the uncertainty surrounding ownership of such works might needlessly discourage subsequent creators and users from incorporating such works in new creative efforts, or from making such works available to the public."

• Home Page
• Federal Register "Notice of Inquiry"
• Initial Public Comments
• Responses to Initial Public Comments
• Roundtable Transcript, July 26, 2005, Washington, D.C.
• Roundtable Transcript, July 27, 2005, Washington, D.C.
• Roundtable Transcript, August 2, 2005, Berkeley, CA
• Report issued January 31, 2006 and submitted to U.S. Senate Judiary Committee
  • Copyright Office "Report on Orphan Works" [contains appendices]
  • Copyright Office "Report on Orphan Works [without appendices]
• Recent/Upcoming Actions. The Courts, Internet and Intellectual Property subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee held a public oversight hearing on the Orphan Works report at 2 p.m. on March 8, 2006. Watch a Webcast of the event and review the prepared written statements from various witnesses. The Senate Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property held a hearing on the Orphan Works proposal on April 6, 2006. Here is Additional information on the hearing including a video webcast and copies of written statements.
  Legislation should be introduced shortly.

Has also been introduced as Title 2 of HR6052, the Copyright Modernization Act of 2006
Bill Summary/Status, Copy of Bill
HR6052 contains legislative provisions already passed by the Courts, Internet and Intellectual Property Subcommittee so it is also pending in full House Judiciary Committee for Consideration
There is a proposed but not yet introduced "Manager's Amendment" to HR6052. The Orphan Works provisions begin on page 6. This amendment would exempt photographs, graphic arts and sculpture from the provisions of the legislation until the United States Copyright Office designs and implement a searchable database for these formats, a task this amendment mandates the USCO do on or before December 1, 2011.

*****At a House Judiciary Committee mark-up session on September 27, HR 6052 was pulled from consideration, effectively killing the Orphan Works legislation for this Congress. The bill will be introduced again when the new 110th Congress begins in January 2007.

3. Preservation of Orphan Works Act A technical amendment fixing a problem in Section 108(h-i) of U.S. Copyright Law; the problem had been caused via a drafting error in the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 which prevented films from being eligible for the Section 108(h) exemption. Now, libraries and archives will be allowed to make copyrighted works (including films) available during the final 20 years of that work's copyright, assuming three conditions are met. Here is the Section 108(h-i) text as it stands now after the April 2005 amendment:

§ 108. Limitations on exclusive rights: Reproduction by libraries and archives...

(h)(1) For purposes of this section, during the last 20 years of any term of copyright of a published work, a library or archives, including a nonprofit educational institution that functions as such, may reproduce, distribute, display, or perform in facsimile or digital form a copy or phonorecord of such work, or portions thereof, for purposes of preservation, scholarship, or research, if such library or archives has first determined, on the basis of a reasonable investigation, that none of the conditions set forth in subparagraphs (A), (B), and (C) of paragraph (2) apply.

(2) No reproduction, distribution, display, or performance is authorized under this subsection if —

(A) the work is subject to normal commercial exploitation;
(B) a copy or phonorecord of the work can be obtained at a reasonable price; or
(C) the copyright owner or its agent provides notice pursuant to regulations promulgated by the Register of Copyrights that either of the conditions set forth in subparagraphs (A) and (B) applies.

(3) The exemption provided in this subsection does not apply to any subsequent uses by users other than such library or archives.

(i) The rights of reproduction and distribution under this section do not apply to a musical work, a pictorial, graphic or sculptural work, or a motion picture or other audiovisual work other than an audiovisual work dealing with news, except that no such limitation shall apply with respect to rights granted by subsections (b), (c) and (h), or with respect to pictorial or graphic works published as illustrations, diagrams, or similar adjuncts to works of which copies are reproduced or distributed in accordance with subsections (d) and (e).

Additional information 4. National Film Preservation Act of 2005 Part of Public Law 109-9, the "Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2005." Provisions in this new public law involved 1) the National Film Preservation Board, and 2) the National Film Preservation Foundation.

• Current Status: Passed by U.S. Congress and became Public Law 109-9 in April 2005.
• Additional information

5. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) Rulemaking
As part of a periodic review, the Librarian of Congress, on the recommendation of the Register of Copyrights, has announced the classes of works subject to the exemption from the prohibition against circumvention of technological measures that control access to copyrighted works. Persons making noninfringing uses of the following six classes of works will not be subject to the prohibition against circumventing access controls (17 U.S.C. § 1201(a)(1)) during the next three years. These new exemptions include: 1) Audiovisual works included in the educational library of a college or university’s film or media studies department, when circumvention is accomplished for the purpose of making compilations of portions of those works for educational use in the classroom by media studies or film professors. More information at: http://www.copyright.gov/1201/

6. Public Domain Enhancement Act
Would amend title 17, United States Code, to allow abandoned copyrighted works to enter the public domain after 50 years.

• Current Status: Introduced in the House in May 2005 and referred to House Committee on the Judiciary. Congress did not pass this legislation so it died with the expiration of the 109th Congress. It is unclear if the legislation will be reintroduced in the 110th Congress.
  
• Additional Information including text of bill, legislative status etc.

If you have questions concerning this page or would like to suggest additional legislative projects for inclusion, please send Steve Leggett an email via: sleg@loc.gov.

National Film Preservation Board - Motion Picture & Television Reading Room
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