IP Law Daily, COPYRIGHT NEWS: Modernized copyright registration system is still years from completion, Register of Copyrights says, (Jun 26, 2024)

By Matthew Hersh, J.D.

A pilot of one key component should be rolled out this year for testing purposes.

The Copyright Office intends to retire its outdated eCO online registration system and fully replace it with a modernized version by the end of 2026, Register of Copyrights Shira Perlmutter told a congressional panel today. But early adaptors will get a taste of the new system, if current projections hold up, once pilot testing gets underway in earnest at the end of this year.

Register Perlmutter’s comments came at a hearing before the Committee on House Administration, which is charged with managing the daily operations of the House, budget authorizations for House committees, and expenses of Members of Congress. The committee, led by Chairman Bryan Steil (R-Wisc.) and Ranking Member Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.), has oversight over Copyright Office activities because the Office is housed within the Library of Congress.

Much of the hearing, titled U.S. Copyright Office: Customers, Communities, and Modernization Efforts, focused on the Office’s efforts to modernize its technological infrastructure—most importantly, its updates to the registration process. Development work on a new system, known as the Enterprise Copyright System, began in earnest in 2020, and the Office expects to have a pilot of the so-called “standard application”—the basic form used by most single-work registrants—by the end of this year. However, Perlmutter explained, that is only one of several components of the system that will have to be piloted and tested before the existing interface is decommissioned en masse and replaced in 2026.

Perlmutter also gave a status report on the Office’s pending study into artificial intelligence—a report anxiously awaited by committee members. Perlmutter explained that the Office intends to roll out that report in three tranches. The first, originally planned for the spring but now expected to be finalized within the coming weeks, will focus on digital “replicas” of human voices, images, and likenesses. The second, to be issued later in the summer, will deal with the copyrightability of AI outputs. The third section of the report, coming later, will deal with big-ticket infringement-related questions such as when and whether the ingestion of copyrighted materials by AI systems constitutes fair use.

Register Perlmutter also addressed several other issues in the short hearing:

• Recordation and digitizing. Perlmutter explained that the Office had taken its “antiquated paper-based process” for recordation of copyright assignments in the 21st century with an online recordation system. She also discussed the Office’s efforts to digitize historical documents—most importantly, registration records prior to 1976—by making them viewable online and, eventually, searchable via metadata.

• DMCA exceptions—right to repair. Members of the committee asked Perlmutter about whether the newest round of DMCA exemptions, due later this year, would expand the right to repair beyond the consumer context and into commercial contexts such as farming. Perlmutter stated that the Office was continuing to look at whether there was sufficient evidence to support such an expansion, but she also noted that the Office has in the past invited Congress to consider building a permanent right to repair exemption into the law.

• News media. Perlmutter stated that the Office is making “record time” in finalizing a rule, now expected to be published in July, that would allow group registration of news websites. Several members of Congress also asked Perlmutter whether the Office was making any special effort to reach out to small and local news organizations to ensure that their concerns about the impact of artificial intelligence would be incorporated into the AI report. Perlmutter emphasized that the Office had received 10,000 comments from copyright stakeholders and that the door was open for anyone to express additional views.

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