Copyright: Another Tumultuous Year in Review

A brief tour through the past year’s significant U.S. copyright cases, legislation, and regulatory actions, as well as international activity. This presentation focuses on how these events affect Broadcasters who depend on copyright to protect their content, but also depend on the fair use of others’ content to deliver news and commentary to their viewers both over the air and on their websites. During the past year there have been many efforts both in the United States and abroad to change the impact of copyright law on content creators, broadcasters, device manufacturers, and consumers. While no significant legislation was enacted in the U.S., the bills that were introduced foreshadow the battles to come over the next year. Meanwhile, court battles between content owners and online services providers, satellite radio operators, and other digital distributors of content continued unabated, often yielding new interpretations of the Grokster case, fair use, and the DMCA. Also this past year libraries and other consumer groups pressed the Copyright Office to provide exemptions from the DMCA to permit “fair use.” Finally, there was significant international activity in Europe, Australia, and elsewhere around the globe, including regulation of copyright and DRM, as well as failed efforts to conclude a Broadcasting Treaty at WIPO.