Bills Recently Introduced

S. 169. ARTS Act. Introduced Feb. 2, 2021

H.R. 704. ARTS Act. Introduced Feb. 2, 2021

These bills direct the Copyright Office to waive various copyright registration-related fees for works that win certain competitions sponsored by the Congressional Institute or established by Congress.

Recent Legislation

H.R. 133, Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 enacted Dec. 27, 2020:

• New provision in 18 U.S.C. § 2319C on illicit digital transmission services, see bill excerpt.
  
  
• CASE Act, see bill excerpt.
  
  

S. 5020, A bill to repeal section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934, introduced 12/15/2020.

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Bill Recently Introduced

S. 4632 - Online Content Policy Modernization Act, introduced 09/21/2020. To amend title 17, United States Code, to establish an alternative dispute resolution program for copyright small claims, to amend the Communications Act of 1934 to modify the scope of protection from civil liability for “good Samaritan” blocking and screening of offensive material, and for other purposes.

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Bill Recently Introduced and Passed

H.R. 748, Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, Introduced: Mar. 25, 2020.
Passed House: Mar. 27, 2020

See Sec. 19011. (a) Amendment.—National Emergency Relief Authority for the Register of Copyrights, pages 769-772 in PDF version

Bills Recently Introduced

• “Copyright Protection for Civilian Faculty of Certain Accredited Institutions,” Subtitle E, Section 544 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020, amends title 17 of the U.S. Code by providing that the a civilian member of the faculty of certain military institutions, who authors a literary work produced in the course of employment for publication by a scholarly press or journal, owns the copyright of the work and may be directed to provide an irrevocable, nonexclusive license to the U.S. government.
  
  
• “Satellite Television Community Protection and Promotion Act of 2019” within the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020 amends title 17 of the U.S. Code by providing a non-expiring compulsory license for satellite retransmissions of distant network stations and non-network “superstations” and by overhauling section 119 to narrow the definition of “unserved households” that can receive signals under the license.
  
  
• “Library of Congress Technical Corrections Act of 2019” within the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act amends the basic pay for the Register of Copyrights and Associate Registers as provided in title 17 of the U.S. Code, and removes the cap on the number of permitted Copyright Royalty Judges staff members, as well as adjusting the compensation rate for those staff members.

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