[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 22 (Friday, February 1, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 1233-1234]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-00573]


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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

Copyright Office

[Docket No. 2015-7]


Section 512 Study: Announcement of Public Roundtable

AGENCY: U.S. Copyright Office, Library of Congress.

ACTION: Notice of public roundtable.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Copyright Office is conducting a study to evaluate 
the impact and effectiveness of the Copyright Act's safe harbor 
provisions for online service providers. At this time, the Office is 
announcing that it will hold a one-day public roundtable to allow 
interested members of the public to address relevant domestic and 
international developments that have occurred since the close of the 
written comment period on February 6, 2017. The roundtable is not 
intended to allow participants to supplement the record with respect to 
events occurring before that date, and discussion will be limited to 
the specific topics set forth in this notice.

DATES: The public roundtable will be held on April 8, 2019 from 9:00 
a.m. to approximately 5:00 p.m.

ADDRESSES: Library of Congress Madison Building, 101 Independence 
Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20540.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Cindy Abramson, Assistant General 
Counsel, at [email protected]; Kevin Amer, Senior Counsel for Policy 
and International Affairs, at [email protected]; or Kimberley Isbell, 
Senior Counsel for Policy and International Affairs, at 
[email protected]. Each may be reached by telephone at 202-707-8350.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Background

    Enacted in 1998 as part of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act 
(``DMCA''), section 512 of Title 17 provides a system for copyright 
owners and internet service providers to address online infringement 
outside the context of litigation. This system includes a series of 
``safe harbors'' through which an eligible service provider can limit 
its liability for copyright infringement by complying with certain 
requirements, generally consisting of implementing measures to 
expeditiously address online infringement.
    At Congress's request, the U.S. Copyright Office is conducting a 
study to assess the impact and effectiveness of section 512. The Office 
published an initial Notice of Inquiry on December 31, 2015, seeking 
written comments to thirty questions covering eight categories of 
topics.\1\ The Office received over 92,000 written submissions in 
response. Subsequently, in May 2016, the Office held two-day public 
roundtables in New York and San Francisco. The Office published a 
second Notice of Inquiry on November 8, 2016, seeking written comments 
to sixteen questions covering four topics, in addition to inviting the 
submission of empirical research studies assessing the operation of the 
safe harbor provisions

[[Page 1234]]

on a quantitative or qualitative basis.\2\ The Office received seventy-
nine written comments and nine empirical studies in response. 
Information about the study, including the Notices of Inquiry, public 
comments, and transcripts of the public roundtables, may be accessed on 
the Copyright Office website at https://www.copyright.gov/policy/section512/.
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    \1\ See Section 512 Study: Notice and Request for Public 
Comment, 80 FR 81862 (Dec. 31, 2015).
    \2\ See Section 512 Study: Request for Additional Comments, 81 
FR 78636 (Nov. 8, 2016).
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    The Office is now announcing that it will convene an additional 
roundtable to enable interested members of the public to address 
relevant domestic and foreign developments that have occurred since the 
close of the written comment period on February 6, 2017. Specifically, 
the roundtable will consider the following topics: (1) Recent domestic 
case law interpreting provisions of the DMCA safe harbor framework and 
(2) recent international legal and policy developments related to 
addressing liability for infringing content online.
    Recent domestic case law has addressed various aspects of section 
512. For example, in BMG Rights Management (US) LLC v. Cox 
Communications, Inc., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit 
considered whether Cox reasonably implemented its repeat infringer 
policy for purposes of section 512(a). The court held that Cox failed 
to implement its policy in ``any consistent or meaningful way--leaving 
it essentially with no policy''--and thus could not qualify for the 
section 512(a) safe harbor.\3\ Additionally, the U.S. Court of Appeals 
for the Ninth Circuit in Mavrix Photographs LLC v. LiveJournal Inc. 
held that there were genuine issues of material fact as to whether 
volunteer moderators who reviewed user-submitted content were agents of 
the service provider--an issue relevant to the provider's eligibility 
for the safe harbor protection under section 512(c).\4\ Participants 
may discuss these cases as well as other recent domestic case law 
developments during the roundtable. The Office previously identified 
case law as a key issue in this study and is interested in stakeholder 
views as to whether recent cases indicate any emerging trends.
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    \3\ BMG Rights Mgmt. (US) LLC v. Cox Commc'ns, Inc., 881 F.3d 
293, 303-05 (4th Cir. 2018).
    \4\ Mavrix Photographs LLC v. LiveJournal Inc., 873 F.3d 1045, 
1054-57 (9th Cir. 2017).
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    Since 2017, several other countries also have addressed issues of 
copyright infringement and online service provider liability. For 
example, in Europe, work towards a possible new Directive on Copyright 
in the Digital Single Market has been underway since 2016.\5\ In 
September 2018, the European Parliament voted to approve a proposed 
Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market that, among other 
changes, would establish new obligations for online service providers 
that store and give public access to copyrighted works uploaded by 
users and that optimize and promote such works for profit-making 
purposes.\6\ Further negotiations on the text via a ``trilogue'' 
process of negotiations between the European Commission, the European 
Parliament, and the Council of the European Union, are underway.\7\ In 
addition, the Australian Parliament recently passed an amendment to its 
copyright law that provides copyright owners with additional tools to 
enforce their rights regarding infringing content online, including 
injunctions to block domain names.\8\ The Office is aware that such 
proposals have generated widespread debate, with stakeholders 
expressing a variety of views concerning the potential implications for 
copyright owners, online service providers, and members of the public. 
At the roundtable, participants are invited to identify and discuss 
recent law and policy developments in other countries that bear on 
issues related to the effectiveness, ineffectiveness, and/or other 
impacts on online service provider liability.
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    \5\ Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of 
the Council on Copyright in the Digital Single Market, COM(2016) 593 
final (Sept. 14, 2016).
    \6\ Amendments Adopted by the European Parliament on 12 
September 2018 on the Proposal for a Directive of the European 
Parliament and of the Council on Copyright in the Digital Single 
Market, P8_TA-PROV(2018)0337, art. 2, ] 1, pt. 4b; art. 13 (Sept. 
12, 2018).
    \7\ A trilogue meeting scheduled for January 21, 2019 was 
postponed as proposed compromise text was rejected by several 
countries. See, e.g., Samuel Stolton, Copyright directive faces 
further setback as final trilogue postponed, EURACTIV (Jan. 21, 
2019) https://www.euractiv.com/section/digital/news/copyright-directive-faces-further-setback-as-final-trilogue-cancelled/.
    \8\ Explanatory Memorandum, Copyright Amendment (Online 
Infringement) Bill 2018. (Austl.), https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id:%22legislation/ems/
r6209_ems_b5e338b6-e85c-4cf7-8037-35f13166ebd4%22.
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II. Roundtable Subjects of Inquiry

    The public roundtable will consist of two sessions: (1) Domestic 
case law developments since 2017 interpreting the section 512 safe 
harbors and (2) international legal and policy developments since 2017 
relating to online service provider liability. The roundtable is not 
intended as an opportunity to supplement the written record with 
respect to matters outside these categories, and discussion will be 
limited to developments that have occurred after the close of the 
written comment period on February 6, 2017. The Copyright Office will 
not accept any written materials prior to or on the day of the 
roundtable. The sessions will be video recorded and transcribed, and 
copies of the recording and transcript will be made available on the 
Copyright Office website.
    Members of the public who seek to participate in the roundtable 
should complete and submit the form available on the Copyright Office 
website at https://www.copyright.gov/policy/section512/ no later than 
March 15, 2019. If you are unable to access a computer or the internet, 
please contact the Office using the contact information above for 
special instructions. Individuals selected for participation will be 
notified directly by the Office not later than March 29, 2019. In order 
to accommodate the expected level of interest, the Office expects to 
assign no more than one representative per organization to each 
session.
    The roundtable hearing room will have a limited number of seats for 
participants and observers. For persons who wish to observe one or more 
of the roundtable sessions, the Office will provide public seating on a 
first-come, first-served basis on the day of the roundtable.

    Dated: January 28, 2019.
Regan A. Smith,
General Counsel and Associate Register of Copyrights.
[FR Doc. 2019-00573 Filed 1-31-19; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 1410-30-P