The Republican Study Committee (RSC) said it made a mistake when it prematurely published...
The Republican Study Committee (RSC) said it made a mistake when it prematurely published a policy brief that called for comprehensive copyright reform. The briefing entitled: “Three myths about copyright law and where to start to fix it” was published…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
Friday on the RSC website (http://xrl.us/bn2jcb), but has since been removed. The paper was authored by Derek Khanna, an RSC policy staff member, and discussed possible reforms to U.S. copyright law that “would lead to more economic development for the private sector and to a copyright law that is more firmly based upon constitutional principles,” the document said. The paper argued that modern copyright laws have expanded beyond the original intent of the Constitution to become “a symptom of the expansion in the size and scope of the federal government.” Khanna urged the committee to seek policy solutions like: statutory damages reform, expansion of fair use, increased punishment for false copyright claims, and limitation of copyright terms and renewals. Public Knowledge Founder Gigi Sohn said in a blog post Monday (http://xrl.us/bn2jje) lobbyists for the content industry sought to censor the debate over copyright reform by sinking the study. She said the policy brief was taken down from the RSC website less than 24 hours after it was released because “entertainment lobbyists [came] down on the RSC like a ton of bricks.” RSC Communications Director Brian Straessle disagreed and said in an email that “due to an oversight in our review process, [the policy brief] did not account for the full range of perspectives among our members.” “It was removed from the website to address that concern. I know some want to point fingers elsewhere, but the simple fact is that we screwed up, we admitted it, and we hope people will now use this opportunity to engage in polite and serious discussion of copyright law,” he said. The Recording Industry Association of America said separately that it never asked for the brief to be removed from the RSC website. “We understand that a decision was made ... to allow for the appropriate process that would have otherwise taken place before issuing,” said RIAA Senior Executive Vice President Mitch Glazier. “We appreciate that the Republican Study Committee clarified that the policy brief did not meet RSC standards for review by Member offices and staff,” he said in an email from his spokesman. The Motion Picture Association of America did not comment.