Out with the Acting, in with the Doing

The news is a few days old, but it hasn’t appeared here yet and it should.  This past week the United States got a new Register of Copyrights: Maria Pallente.

Maria has been serving as the Acting Register since the previous Register, Marybeth Peters, retired at the end of the last year.  As of the first of this month, Maria is now the full, official, not-just-acting-but-being, Register.

The US Register of Copyrights works under the Librarian of Congress and does a lot more than just registering things.  Her role does includes developing procedures within the Copyright office for registering works, researching registrations and other such things.  But her increasingly more important role is to provide input and analysis on copyright law and issues relating to copyright, both domestic and international.

Already Maria has testified before Congress about potential changes to the US copyright regime.  Her first day as Register, she appeared before the Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition, and the Internet to discuss various types of online infringement.  She had testified about similar issues before the same subcommittee has Acting Register in March.

Marybeth Peters is often hailed for her many achievements as Register of Copyrights, and I’ve often heard her spoken of fondly by both sides of the great copyright debates.  Maria has some big shoes to fill, but it looks like she’s jumped right in and is ready for the challenge.  Welcome to Maria!

For a full description of the US Register of Copyrights duties: 17 U.S.C. §701

Crown copyright and protection for the crown

The March 2010 issue of Informa Law's Copyright World has now been published. It contains, among other things, a review by Navin Katyal (from public sector body Infrastructure Ontario) of the need to reform the Crown copyright provisions that still, perhaps somewhat anachronistically, linger under Canadian law. He argues that, while Crown copyright should not be undermined simply because Government has a regulatory role, consultation should lead to clearer guidance as to what should remain protected: prime source materials, such as legislative acts and government regulations, should be left to the public domain.

On the subject of crowns (as in "Jack fell down and broke his crown ...") here's also a summary by Simon Clark of Berwin Leighton Paisner which explains last December's Court of Appeal decision in the 'Star Wars helmet' case, Lucasfilm Ltd v Andrew Ainsworth and another.

The full contents of this issue can be seen here.