January 5,
2009 - The 110th
Congress ends and the 11th Congress begins.
September 26,
2008 - The Senate
passes S. 2913 by unanimous consent, i.e. not a
single Senator objected to the legislation.
May
15, 2008 - The Senate
Judiciary Committee passes S. 2913 by a unanimous "voice vote" after
making several changes to the bill in a "manager's
amendment.”
May 7, 2008
- The House Judiciary
Committee's Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet,
Intellectual Property unanimously agrees by a "voice vote"
to pass H.R. 5889 to the full Committee after making
several changes to the bill in a "manager's amendment."
April 24, 2008
- The House and Senate
introduce similar legislation - H.R. 5889 and S. 2913.
March 13, 2008 - The
House Judiciary Committee Intellectual Property
Subcommittee holds an oversight hearing on orphan
works.
September 27,
2006 - The
planned legislative markup of H.R. 6052
in the House Judiciary
Committee is canceled due to unrelated concerns over the
music section of the legislation. Title Two of
H.R. 6052, the Copyright Modernization Act of
2006, contained
an updated version of H.R. 5439, the Orphan Works Act of
2006. Title One contained the Section 115 Reform Act or
“SIRA”, previously numbered H.R. 5553.
May 24, 2006
- The House Intellectual
Property Subcommittee holds a markup of H.R. 5439. No amendments were adopted with the
expectation that they would be considered later at the
full Committee markup.
Spring and summer
2006 - The House
Intellectual Property Subcommittee hosts a number of
private sector meetings, typically weekly, in an attempt to
resolve differences among the witnesses at the March 2006
hearing. As intellectual property counsel to the Committee,
I lead those negotiating sessions.
April 6, 2006
- The Senate Intellectual
Property Subcommittee holds an oversight hearing on the orphan works report (pdf) released by the Copyright
Office.
March 8, 2006
- The House Intellectual
Property Subcommittee holds an oversight hearing on the orphan works report (pdf) released by the Copyright
Office. In the video of the hearing, I am seated to the
right of the Chairman (the left of the screen).
January 30, 2006
- The Copyright Office
releases its report on orphan works with legislative
recommendations on page 127 of the report.
2005
- The Copyright Office
conducts a year long study of orphan works with three
public roundtables attended by a range of interested
parties. 721 initial public comments
and 146 reply comments were formally submitted as part of
this process.
January 26, 2005
- The Copyright Office
releases a notice in the Federal Register
inviting written comments
on orphan works.
July 1, 1978
- The 1976 Copyright Act goes
into effect eliminating formal registration requirements at
the Copyright Office. Current law provides registration
incentives in the form of statutory damages and attorneys
fees in infringement cases were timely registration has
occurred.