Posts Tagged: "copyright legislation"

If our legal system worked properly, it would be easy enough for her to file for copyright infringement. But under our current claims system, high litigation costs make it almost impossible for authors, writers and artists to protect their livelihoods in court. Independent creators are frequent victims of piracy and other forms of copyright infringement. But without the resources of a record company or publisher, pursuing small claims is financially impossible… Fortunately, there’s a bipartisan policy fix pending in Congress. It’s called the CASE Act (H.R. 3945), and it creates a system that makes pursuing small claims financially and logistically feasible.

According to Congressman Collins, who I spoke with via telephone on Friday, March 6, 2015, there was a great deal of treatment of the SEA at the subcommittee level during the 113th Congress, but now during the 114th Congress consideration will move to the full Committee level, which suggests a seriousness about getting something done. ”Music licensing will be an area where something bubbles up this Congress,” Collins explained. ”I’m hoping the industry will come together.”

Congressman Jerrold Nadler has been selected by Democrats to be the Ranking Member of the House IP Subcommittee. It appears that Issa may be getting squeezed out, which could mean that the House IP Subcommittee will have a lot less work to do than one might expect in a Congress that will be seeking to push major reforms to both the Copyright Act, the Patent Act and to implement federal trade secret legislation. Nevertheless, it is still worth knowing who the key players could be. With that in mind, and without further ado, here are the Democrats on the House IP Subcommittee.