US Copyright Office, Washington, DC (Ken Lund (CC BY-SA 2.0))
The US Copyright Office is about to dramatically change. Here’s the fast-tracked, 5-page bill that will perform that transformation.
For those just tuning in, the US Copyright Office is about to experience its greatest change in decades. Most important, the Office will fall under the direct purview of President Donald Trump. Instead of the Library of Congress appointing the head of the US Copyright Office, the appointment will be made by the President himself.
The head of the US Copyright Office — technically called the ‘Register’ — oversees all copyright policy, including trademarks. Now, that individual will have a heightened level of accountability to the President. Not only that, the President will soon have the power to fire the Register at will, and re-appoint a new one.
+ Trump Is About to Gain Full Control Over the US Copyright Office
One ‘check’ on all of this is that the Senate must approve all Register appointments. That might be more than a technicality, depending on how interested and educated Senate members become on copyright law.
If that sounds horrifyingly scary to you, then you’re probably in music, film, books, or another creative industry. And part of the problem is that the US Copyright Office is now likely to shift from a behind-the-scenes bureaucracy to a frontline political weapon. And a great way to stick it to enemies like the ‘Hollywood elite’ and unsupportive artists (and their labels and publishers).
Whether Trump will use his power to appoint a Register who hates Hollywood and the music industry is anyone’s guess. There’s also plenty of Trump warfare happening with Silicon Valley, which notoriously prefers lax copyright.
What’s far more certain is the following, 5-page bill. This isn’t as complicated as the recently-doomed health care bill. Not only that, it actually enjoys bi-partisan support.
This is much bigger than music and Hollywood. Trump has a lot of interest in trademarks, or has DMN forgotten what he does for a living. Not everything is about you.
If our gracious new U.S.President , Donald Trump , Is sincerely about putting , Americans’ , first again , then he’ll do the paperwork and sign into action for a specialized fleet of cargo planes to leave the decks of those fine naval ships , dropping down in 200 plus countries and loading up our domestic-stabilization money and and flying non stop back to the soil of the free !
maybe if hollywood didn’t have its head so far up its own ass and offered an olive branch to the trump administration upon election instead of all its hyperventilating pink pussy hat wearing snowflake stupidity, we might actually be able to move our copyright agenda forward somewhat.
I could NOT possibly agree with you more!
Not sure Hollywood played their cards right on this one. Not saying it’s a group that necessarily moves in lock-step, but, maybe they should have figured out a better response. Regardless of who’s right or wrong, Trump now wields a lot of control. It could dramatically alter the future of film.
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