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Internet Task Force Examines Copyright In the Digital Age
On Jan. 28, the Commerce Department issued a much-anticipated policy statement entitled “White Paper on Remixes, First Sale and Statutory Damages: Copyright Policy, Creativity, and Innovation in the Digital Economy.” The 100-page white paper, from the department's Internet Policy Task Force is the culmination of a process that began with a preliminary “green paper” in 2013, and proceeded through written comments and a nationwide series of public roundtables in 2014 to gather input from stakeholders in the field, such as the recording and film industries, librarians, user groups and the technology sector. This article briefly describes the white paper's scope and recommendations, with a focus on the issue of statutory damages, as to which the white paper proposes several amendments to the current Copyright Act.
Remixes
When the task force uses the term “remixes,” it refers not only to the edited versions of sound recordings often played by dance-club DJs but also to all manner of new works, such as fan fiction and user-generated YouTube videos, which are comprised wholly or partly of pre-existing content, but whose creators typically do not obtain licenses through existing licensing mechanisms. While the copyright industries have not generally been champions of the so-called “remix culture,” the task force has clearly made the issue a priority, singling it out as one of three topics of sustained analysis in the white paper. Thus, the task force states:
Remixes make valuable contributions to society in providing expressive, political, and entertainment content. It is important that the copyright framework continues to allow the broad range of remixes to thrive, ensuring that a vibrant fair use space coexists with effective licensing structures.
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