House Judiciary's Copyright Priorities Still Largely Mystery After UCLA Roundtable
The House Judiciary Committee’s priorities for legislation in its Copyright Act review remained largely undefined after the committee’s Tuesday roundtable session at the University of California, Los Angeles, participants in the session told us. The UCLA session, House Judiciary’s third roundtable since beginning its copyright “listening tour” in September, drew Los Angeles’ movie, music and TV industries and others. House Judiciary’s Monday roundtable at Santa Clara University drew a mainly tech sector crowd (see 1511100063), while a September roundtable in Nashville was exclusively pegged at music licensing issues (see 1509220055). Participants in the UCLA roundtable said they remain unsure how House Judiciary will proceed, with several saying committee members made few statements indicating their leanings.
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Movie and TV industry stakeholders, including the Directors Guild of America and the Independent Film and Television Alliance (IFTA), spent much of their time with House Judiciary citing the need for updates to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to further combat online piracy, an entertainment lobbyist told us. MPAA Chief-Global Content Protection Dean Marks touted the group’s pursuit of industrywide efforts to combat privacy, as expected (see 1511090036), but also pushed House Judiciary to investigate how Google and other search engines provide a “gateway” for users to access pirated content, the entertainment lobbyist said. It wasn’t clear during the UCLA roundtable how much weight House Judiciary members would put on readdressing piracy issues, but the entertainment lobbyist said House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., attended an MPAA-sponsored fundraiser Wednesday for House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. A Goodlatte spokeswoman said the fundraiser had been scheduled well before House Judiciary decided on the UCLA roundtable. MPAA didn’t comment.
Google Legal Director-Copyright Fred Von Lohmann defended the company’s efforts to combat piracy, saying YouTube’s Content ID system for detecting pirated content is reliant on submissions by copyright owners, an entertainment lobbyist said. FilmColony founder Richard Gladstein had claimed Google was actively aiding online piracy by placing illegal streams of content high among search results even as the company is able to effectively weed out child pornography. Both DGA Executive Vice President-Global Government Affairs Kathy Garmezy and IFTA General Counsel Susan Cleary separately sought more House Judiciary focus on the notice-and-takedown system, with Cleary pushing for making large-scale cases of streaming pirated content a felony offense, the entertainment lobbyist said. Cleary and Garmezy didn’t comment.
IP and entertainment lawyer Dina LaPolt, who testified at the UCLA hearing, said it was interesting to hear movie and TV interests spend so much of their time on online piracy given the music industry’s own battle to combat piracy a decade ago. LaPolt testified at UCLA in her role as attorney adviser to the Songwriters of North America and as counsel to Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler. “We dealt with this back with Napster, so this is a case of ‘been there, done that’ for” the music industry, LaPolt said. “We’re now focused on remuneration and easing government regulation via the [American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers and Broadcast Music Inc.] consent decrees.” Content Creators Coalition (C3) Executive Director Jeffrey Boxer, who also testified at the UCLA, likened the movie and TV industry’s current battle with online piracy to music creators’ royalties battle with streaming services.
Goodlatte appeared to “show his hand a little bit” during the UCLA roundtable on how he might handle calls for requiring royalties for music performances on terrestrial radio, LaPolt said. Broadcaster Salem Radio Los Angeles Vice President Terry Fahy had raised concerns during the roundtable about streaming royalty rates, saying they were preventing terrestrial stations from adding streaming components to their services. Goodlatte suggested there might be a deal to be struck between terrestrial radio and content creators given the lack of a terrestrial performance right, which LaPolt said was a “big indicator” since Goodlatte typically “plays everything close to his chest.” The exchange also shows Goodlatte “obviously thinks that people in the private sector should be trying to make deals with each other,” LaPolt said.
Although Goodlatte and other House Judiciary members appeared to be seeking more detailed legislative proposals from all parties at the UCLA roundtable, committee members did not indicate how they would move forward with the Copyright Act review, Boxer said. “We do know that they’re going to pick these issues back up again,” but it’s unclear how any particular issues would factor into future legislation, he said. A House Judiciary spokeswoman said the committee is still holding one-on-one meetings with copyright stakeholders.
Boxer, LaPolt and an entertainment lobbyist all noted continued interest from Goodlatte and others for legislation to change in the Copyright Office’s status within the federal government, either by making it a separate agency or by moving it from the Library of Congress to the Patent and Trademark Office. LaPolt said that though she favors moving the CO out of the LOC, she believes it would be a “big mistake” for House Judiciary to focus its attention solely on addressing the CO’s status to the neglect of other copyright issues. The entertainment lobbyist said there’s still no clear indication of the split among House Judiciary members on how to handle the CO’s status.