House Passes Copyright Office Reform Bill

The House has passed a bipartisan bill, the Register of Copyrights Selection and Accountability Act of 2017, that would make the head of the Copyright Office a presidential appointee, term limited to 10 years. The bill passed by a large margin, 378 to 48, but must still pass the Senate. Currently the register is an appointment of and reports to the Librarian of Congress and has no term limit.

The Register of Copyrights oversees the Copyright Office, whose opinion that online video streamers aren't pay-TV providers when it comes to compulsory license eligibility was just deferred to by the Ninth Circuit in ruling against streamer FilmOn X. The duties of the position include "legal interpretation of the copyright law… promulgating copyright regulations; advising Congress and other government officials on domestic and international copyright policy and other intellectual property issues." There is currently an acting register, Karyn Temple Claggett, but no permanent pick, so this would apply to the next full-time official. Claggett replaced Maria Pallante, who pushed for making illegal streaming of copyrighted works a felony and shared ISP concerns with the impact of the FCC's set-top box proposal on copyrights and contracts.