The Copyright Office’s nascent examination of the U.S. moral rights landscape will delve into an area of copyright law that has largely been on the back burner within the U.S. but has major implications abroad, copyright stakeholders said in interviews. The CO will take its first steps in examining moral rights via a planned April 18 symposium with the George Mason University School of Law and GMU’s Center for the Protection of Intellectual Property (CPIP). The CO said the symposium will be a precursor to a more formal CO analysis of the issue (see 1603110072). A creator’s moral rights may include the right to attribution, the right to publish anonymously or under a pseudonym, and the right to preserve the integrity of a work from alteration. The direction a potential future Copyright Office policy study on moral rights could take remains unclear. Stakeholders offered divergent policy visions, including maintaining the U.S.’s current status quo and adopting moral rights laws more consistent with those enforced in Europe.
Jimm Phillips
Jimm Phillips, Associate Editor, covers telecommunications policymaking in Congress for Communications Daily. He joined Warren Communications News in 2012 after stints at the Washington Post and the American Independent News Network. Phillips is a Maryland native who graduated from American University. You can follow him on Twitter: @JLPhillipsDC
Much of the Copyright Office’s $74 million FY 2017 budget request is directed at “maintaining the current state” of the CO’s operations and “replenishing depleted staff to ensure we have sufficient personnel to meet our current responsibilities under the Copyright Act,” said Register of Copyrights Maria Pallante in written testimony to the Senate Appropriations Committee’s Legislative Branch Subcommittee. Acting Librarian of Congress David Mao will testify at the hearing Tuesday on the LOC’s proposed $719 million FY 2017 budget, while Pallante will be at the hearing to answer CO-specific questions, the CO said Monday. Both Mao and Pallante testified during an early March House Appropriations Committee Legislative Branch Subcommittee hearing on the LOC and CO budget requests (see 1603020055). The Senate hearing will begin at 3 p.m. in 192 Dirksen.
NTIA already has begun evaluating ICANN’s proposed Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) transition plan and a related set of recommendations for changes to ICANN’s accountability mechanisms, Administrator Larry Strickling said Friday in a blog post. NTIA hopes to complete its review of the proposals “within 90 days” to determine whether the proposals meet NTIA’s criteria for the transition, Strickling said. ICANN sent its IANA transition proposals to NTIA Thursday, after ICANN’s board unanimously approved the plans at ICANN’s meeting in Marrakech, Morocco. ICANN leaders said they're confident the IANA transition-related proposals fully track with NTIA’s transition criteria (see 1603100070). “Not only will ICANN be stronger as a result of this effort, but a successful outcome here would serve as a powerful example to the world that the multistakeholder model can be used to address challenging Internet governance issues,” Strickling said.
ICANN sent NTIA its finalized Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) transition plan and a related set of recommended changes to ICANN’s accountability mechanisms Thursday, after ICANN’s board approved both proposals, as expected (see 1603040065). IANA Transition Coordination Group Chairwoman Alissa Cooper told the board the IANA transition plan will provide “continuity with how the Internet works today. The proposal keeps in place the same operational realities that have been working on the Internet since the 1990s.” If the IANA transition moves forward as planned, “Internet users should experience no change,” Cooper said during an ICANN news conference Thursday.
Enactment of the Digital Security Commission Act (HR-4651/S-2604) would likely improve understanding of the encryption issues in Apple's ongoing legal standoff with the FBI but may not mean long-lasting changes to the encryption debate within the federal government, cybersecurity law experts said Wednesday during a New America event. Apple formally objected last week to U.S. District Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym's order in Riverside, California, which tried to compel the company to help the FBI access an iPhone used by one of the alleged San Bernardino, California, mass shooters (see 1603020061). Though the tech sector is attempting to be publicly monolithic in its support of Apple, they're far less so behind the scenes, said Steptoe and Johnson lawyer Michael Vatis, former director of the FBI's National Infrastructure Protection Center.
Three of ICANN's six chartering organizations voted Tuesday and Wednesday to either support or not object to sending the Cross Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN Accountability’s (CCWG-Accountability) proposed set of changes to ICANN's accountability mechanisms on to the ICANN board for a final vote. The Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) agreed Tuesday it has “no objection” to sending the CCWG-Accountability proposal to the ICANN board. The Country Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO) and the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) agreed Wednesday to support the CCWG-Accountability proposal, as expected (see 1603040065). ICANN's other three chartering organizations previously said they support the CCWG-Accountability proposal, meaning no chartering organization outright objects to the proposal. The ICANN board is to consider both the CCWG Accountability proposal and a finalized Internet Assigned Names and Numbers Authority transition plan Thursday at ICANN's meeting in Marrakech, Morocco.
Librarian of Congress nominee Carla Hayden's experience with pushing for major library modernizations will be a clear asset to the Library of Congress as it addresses significant issues with its IT program, but Hayden remains largely a blank slate on copyright issues, several copyright stakeholders said in interviews. Hayden's work as CEO of Baltimore's Enoch Pratt Free Library system to update that system's technologies became a major selling point in the White House's rollout of her nomination in late February to take over the Library of Congress (see 1602240054). Hayden's reputation as a library reformer shouldn't distract Congress from working on Copyright Office modernization issues, some told us.
ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee continued debating Tuesday into early evening whether to adopt a document that would say the GAC is still unable to reach consensus on supporting or rejecting the Cross Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN Accountability's (CCWG-Accountability) proposed recommendations for changing ICANN accountability mechanisms. The GAC is expected to say in its response it “has no objection” to the ICANN board transmitting the existing CCWG-Accountability proposal to NTIA. GAC members indicated they fully support nine of the 12 recommendations included in the CCWG-Accountability proposal but weren't sure whether divisions about three other recommendations mean they shouldn't partially support the proposal. GAC, the Country Code Names Supporting Organization and the Generic Names Supporting Organization all need to reach a conclusion by Wednesday whether they support or reject the CCWG-Accountability proposal. The ICANN board is to vote on the CCWG-Accountability proposal and a final Internet Assigned Numbers Authority transition plan Thursday as part of ICANN's meeting in Marrakech, Morocco (see 1603040065). GAC's main sticking point in reaching consensus in Marrakech again involved how to handle CCWG-Accountability's recommendations on GAC's status within ICANN after the IANA transition. CCWG-Accountability recommended the ICANN board be allowed to reject consensus ICANN advice via a 60 percent majority vote. The working group also included a carve-out in its proposal that would bar the GAC from participating in final community votes on taking enforcement action when an ICANN community member objects to ICANN board implementation of GAC advice. GAC Vice Chairwoman Olga Cavalli, also one of Argentina's GAC representatives, led France and six other Latin American nations in objecting to both portions of the CCWG-Accountability proposal (see 1602190047). GAC told CCWG-Accountability in January it wasn't able to reach consensus on whether to support an earlier version of the accountability proposal amid similar concerns about earlier versions of the GAC-related recommendations (see 1601260067).
ICANN CEO Fadi Chehadé said he’s “confident that we will be able to provide” NTIA with final proposed plans for both the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) transition and a related set of recommended changes to ICANN’s accountability mechanisms by the conclusion of the nonprofit corporation’s meeting this week in Marrakech, Morocco. The ICANN board is to vote Thursday on both the IANA transition plan and the Cross Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN Accountability’s (CCWG-Accountability) proposed recommendations. ICANN’s chartering organizations already have unanimously cleared the IANA Stewardship Transition Coordination Group’s IANA transition plan but are still evaluating the CCWG-Accountability’s proposal, which has become intertwined with the IANA transition plan.
ICANN’s final consideration of plans for the upcoming Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) transition will be the focus of ICANN’s meeting this week in Marrakech, Morocco. Several stakeholders told us the meeting also likely will be a harbinger of ICANN’s future after CEO Fadi Chehadé’s imminent retirement. The board plans to meet Thursday on the IANA Stewardship Transition Coordination Group’s IANA transition plan and a related proposal from the Cross Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN Accountability (CCWG-Accountability) that recommends changes to ICANN’s accountability mechanisms. ICANN’s chartering organizations already signed off on the IANA transition plan but several of them still need to consider the CCWG-Accountability proposal (see 1602250053). ICANN is to formally begin the meeting Saturday.