[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 23 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

114th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 23

 To amend title 17, United States Code, with respect to the definition 
         of ``widow'' and ``widower'', and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            January 6, 2015

  Mr. Leahy (for himself, Mr. Markey, Mr. Coons, Mr. Whitehouse, Mr. 
Franken, and Mrs. Boxer) introduced the following bill; which was read 
          twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend title 17, United States Code, with respect to the definition 
         of ``widow'' and ``widower'', and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Copyright and Marriage Equality 
Act''.

SEC. 2. DEFINITION OF WIDOW AND WIDOWER IN TITLE 17, UNITED STATES 
              CODE.

    (a) In General.--Section 101 of title 17, United States Code, is 
amended by striking the definition of ```widow' or `widower''' and 
inserting the following:
            ``An individual is the `widow' or `widower' of an author if 
        the courts of the State in which the individual and the author 
        were married (or, if the individual and the author were not 
        married in any State but were validly married in another 
        jurisdiction, the courts of any State) would find that the 
        individual and the author were validly married at the time of 
        the author's death, whether or not the spouse has later 
        remarried.''.
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by subsection (a) shall 
apply with respect to the death of any author that occurs on or after 
the date of the enactment of this Act.
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