Senate Passes Copyright Clarification Bill

WASHINGTON, August 3, 2010 – The Senate has passed a bill based on recommendations from the Copyright Office that will make it easier to transition to digital recordkeeping.

The bill, called the Copyright Cleanup, Clarification and Corrections Act, was both introduced and passed right before Congress went into recess on August 2. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT), who introduced the bill, said it will make “common-sense” clarifications and corrections to current copyright legislation.

Jeff Sessions (R-Ala), ranking member of the committee, said the bill will help to clarify copyright laws made hazy by ambiguous or conflicting court rulings.

In addition to easing into digital recordkeeping, the act would allow people to file for copyrights electronically. The bill also allows for copyright holders to retain rights to their works if they have been included on a record album, which the bill said is not equivalent to publishing one’s work.