US Copyright Office considers ancillary protection for news
The US Copyright Office is seeking submissions on the topic of whether ancillary copyright protections are warranted in the US, in light of the new copyright laws in both the EU and Australia.
Congress asked the Copyright Office to report on whether new protections for news publishers would be “desirable or appropriate”, according to an entry in the Federal Register published on Tuesday, October 12.
As noted in the Federal Register, “the internet has ushered in an era of disruption and transformation for the press-publishing ecosystem”. Whilst current copyright law gives publishers several ways in which they can protect their news content, these rights are not absolute.
Ancillary copyright, also known as neighbouring rights, offers protection to publishers of content such as news outlets. It gives the publishers a right over the content they have hosted or produced, enabling them to control what happens to it and to charge a fee for its use.
Two examples of jurisdictions which have enacted new forms of legal protection for press publishers in recent years are cited in the Federal Register: the EU and Australia.
In 2019, the EU Commission passed the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market. Its member states were required to implement the directive into national law by June 2021 (although many have failed to do so).
Under Article 15 of the Directive, press publishers have the right to authorise or prohibit third-party online platforms from reproducing their content or making it available to the public for two years following the initial publication of news articles.
Meanwhile, earlier this year Australia passed a law requiring Google and Facebook to negotiate compensation with press publishers.
Under the new legislation, any news outlet can notify the internet giants of its intention to negotiate compensation for the value that the news publishers’ stories generate on the platforms—essentially, Google and Facebook are obliged to pay for news hosted by them.
The aim of the Copyright Office’s report is to consider the above international developments in the copyright sphere and determine whether or not similar protections should be used in the US. If so, the report should further consider the scope, source, and beneficiaries that these protections might have.
It will also cover how ancillary copyright protections may interact with existing copyright law, including the rights of creatives, the rights of publishers, and the exceptions and limitations to these rights.
Finally, the Copyright Office will investigate whether these hypothetical new protections might apply to publishing sectors other than news, and what the relationship between ancillary copyright and the US’ international treaty obligations might be.
A number of specific questions that should be addressed as part of the report are listed in Tuesday’s entry on the Federal Register.
Comments on the topic can be submitted to the Copyright Office until November 26 and a virtual public roundtable to discuss this, and other related topics, will be held on December 9.
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