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.