PREPARED STAtement of David Ladd, REGISTER OF COPYRIGHTS AND ASSISTANT LIBRARIAN FOR COPYRIGHT SERVICES

Mr. Chairman and members of the Subcommittee, I am David Ladd,

Register of Copyrights in the Copyright Office of the Library of Congress and

Assistant Librarian for Copyright Services. I thank you and the Subcommittee

staff for giving me the opportunity to appear here today. The Copyright

Office looks forward to the continued benefit of your Subcommittee's counsel and direction in the exercise of your oversight responsibilities.

The copyright law of the United States is founded on the provision

of the Constitution (art. I, sec. 8, cl. 8) which empowers Congress

✶ ✶ ✶ To Promote the Progress of Science and useful
Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and

Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writ-
ings and Discoveries.

This provision embraces the doctrine of according exclusive rights

to authors for a limited time as a necessary incentive and just reward for creation of works of authorship.

I am grateful for the opportunity to serve

this body of law and the rights of those creative talents and entrepreneurs it protects and of the public whose rights it serves.

At this hearing, I will note some of the major copyright issues that have been, or may be, presented to this Subcommittee in the 98th Congress. I will also report on the administrative condition of the Copyright Office. Let me first review the functions of the Copyright Office under the Copyright

Act.

I. FUNCTIONS OF THE COPYRIGHT OFFICE.

The Copyright Office is one of seven departments in the Library of Congress, which itself, of course, lies within the Legislative Branch. A central function of the Office is the examination and registration of claims to original and renewal copyrights filed by authors and other copyright owners. The Examining Division of the Office annually examines more than 500,000 claims to copyright in an enormous variety of books, music, motion pictures, sound recordings, dramatic works, and works of art, and makes determinations regarding the legal sufficiency of the claims presented. The Office also records assignments and other transfers of copyright and related documents, and certain notices pertaining to the recording of musical works and the termination of rights earlier granted by authors.

The Copyright Office performs several other functions related to registration and recordation: our Cataloging Division prepares and distributes bibliographic descriptions of all registered works; it also provides basic cataloging for many of the Library's special collections.

Our Information and Reference Division searches and reports, upon request, the copyright facts contained in our records, provides certified copies of certificates of registration, and assists the public in using our files. It also maintains a public information office to answer mail, telephone, and personal-visit inquiries about the copyright law and registration

Finally, the Division has an active

procedures. Unlike some other federal agencies, we often deal directly with individual authors and users who are not generally sophisticated in copyright and the legal aspects of registration. publication program for the distribution, free-of-charge, of circulars and similar materials on copyright.

A significant aspect of Copyright Office operations is its role in contributing to the collections of the Library of Congress. Under the Copyright Act of 1976 (as well as under the predecessor statute), copies of all works published in the United States with a notice of copyright are required to be deposited with the Copyright Office. Those copies are made available, also by law, to the Library of Congress for its collections. Copyright deposits are thus a principal base upon which the Library of Congress builds its collections of books, periodicals, music, maps, prints, photographs, and motion pictures. Last year, the value of those Copyright Office-derived acquisitions, was about $6 million - an interesting figure when compared to our annual budget of about $15 million with some $5 million further offset by collected fees. In many of these areas, copyright deposits form the greatest part of the Library's acquisitions.

In addition to the functions described above, the Copyright Act of 1976 gave additional responsibilities to the Copyright Office. Our Licensing Division now licenses jukeboxes to perform copyrighted music and collects statutory royalties under these licenses and also collects the royalties paid under the statutory compulsory license for secondary transmissions by cable These royalties, after deduction of reasonable adminiare deposited with the Treasury Department for investment

television systems. strative expenses,

in interest-bearing U.S. securities and later disbursed to copyright owners in accordance with distribution determinations by the Copyright Royalty Tribunal, which is not a part of the Copyright Office.

The Copyright Office regularly assists both houses of Congress and its staffs in preparing and commenting on legislative proposals, responding to constituent inquiries, and assisting in the further implementation of the copyright law.

The Copyright Act, and accompanying legislative reports,

requires or requests the Register of Copyrights to make certain studies and

reports to Congress and your Committee.

One of these studies was filed with

the Report of the Register of Copy-
and is summarized later

the Congress in January of this year
rights on Library Reproduction of Copyrighted Works

in this statement.

Let me now briefly review the major copyright issues which may be considered in this Congress: Off-air taping of copyrighted works for private use or educational use, commercial lending of sound recordings and audiovisual works, cable television, distribution of "superstation" programming via satellite by resale carriers, the Brussels Satellite Convention, protection for the topography of semiconductor chips, and the Register's Report on Library Reproduction of Copyrighted works.

A. OFF-AIR TAPING OF COPYRIGHTED WORKS FOR
PRIVATE USE OR EDUCATIONAL USE

The application of copyright law to off-air taping of copyrighted works for private use promises to be one of the most-discussed copyright issues before this Congress. The issue of home off-air taping is presently before the Supreme Court. With respect to off-air taping for educational purposes, it was not possible to develop guidelines covering those uses for inclusion in the legislative reports accompanying the copyright revision bill in 1976. However, guidelines were developed in 1981 and published as part of a House Judiciary Committee report in 1982.*

1. Taping for Private Use

The most celebrated copyright case on home taping is, of course, the well-known case of Universal City Studios, Inc. v. Sony Corporation of America, 659 F.2d 963 (9th Cir. 1981), cert granted, 50 U.S.L.W. 3982 (U.S. June 14, 1982) (No. 81-1687). The Supreme Court heard oral argument on January 18, 1983, but has not yet rendered decision. In this case, the owners of copyrighted audiovisual material brought an infringement action against a videotape recorder manufacturer, the distributor, sellers, the advertising agency retained by the distributor, and an individual. The District Court holding [Universal City Studios, et al, v. Sony Corp. et al, 480 F. Supp. 429 (C.D. Cal. 1979)] (hereafter referred to as Betamax) for the defendants was

* H.R. Rep. No. 495, 97th Cong., 2d Sess. 6-11 (1982).