Comments on Copyright Office's IT Modernization Plan Expected To Be Largely Positive
Public feedback on the Copyright Office's preliminary IT modernization plan is expected to be largely supportive, though several copyright stakeholders told us the issue of funding for the CO's plan will continue to loom large going forward. The CO's preliminary five-year IT plan, released in February, focuses on moving the office away from depending on the Library of Congress' large IT infrastructure base and increasing stakeholders' use of copyright registration (see 1602290071). Several copyright stakeholders said their comments will laud the CO's IT plan but declined to offer an early preview of the comments before filing. Comments on the plan are due Thursday.
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“If there's one thing that the copyright community seems to be in favor of, it's modernizing [the CO] and modernizing its IT system,” said Copyright Alliance (CA) CEO Keith Kupferschmid. “The plan itself goes into great detail, and some people could take issue with particular details, but I think there's going to be a tremendous amount of support for the overall plan” in the public comments. The CA's comments, to be filed Thursday, will in part urge expediting implementing the CO IT plan, Kupferschmid said. “Obviously a lot of the recommendations in the plan are important to the copyright community and we'd like to see them put in place effectively as soon as possible,” he said.
The CO “clearly did its due diligence in consulting stakeholders and experts in the field of IT,” said Sentinel Worldwide CEO Steve Tepp, former U.S. Chamber of Commerce chief IP counsel. “It's the boldest, most forward-looking plan [for CO IT] that's ever been published.” Stakeholders “generally appear to be very supportive” of the IT plan, said Library Copyright Alliance counsel Jonathan Band. “Some parties may criticize something [in the plan] but I haven't heard of any” widespread concerns. LCA doesn't plan to file comments on the IT plan, Band said. The CO's plan incorporates elements “that everyone's asking for,” including the use of cloud-based technology and collaboration with private sector systems, but “we'll have to see whether some groups might try to politically triangulate and say less than positive things” about the plan, an industry lobbyist told us.
The CO's plan appears to be widely supported but also remains entangled in larger CO funding and modernization issues, stakeholders told us. The plan's success is predicated on the CO's being “able to get the funding for it and getting the autonomy to implement their IT system” as envisioned, Tepp said. “The real question right now is where they're going to get the money” to fund a major IT revamp, Band said. The CO specifically referenced its IT plan, estimated to cost $165 million over five years, during March hearings before House Appropriations Committee and Senate Appropriations Committee subcommittees on the office's FY 2017 budget requests (see 1603020055 and 1603140073).