U.S. Research launched to avoid high legal fees regarding individual copyright claims

Last October, the American Congress asked the United States Copyright Office to research problems regarding small copyright claims and to look for possible alternatives, such as establishing a small claims court. At this moment, it doesn’t matter if the claim concerns a large copyright protected Hollywood movie or an individual copyright protected photograph, all copyright infringements claims must be brought before a federal court, according to the American Copyright Act of 1976.

At the moment, such a legal procedure includes high costs, which often dissuades individual copyright holders from filing a lawsuit. Therefore, the Copyright Office is researching possible alternatives for individual copyright holders to file a lawsuit without hiring an attorney, to avoid the high legal fees. For example, small claims could be brought before a state court or a federal small claims panel.

However, the Copyright Office stumbled upon a problem throughout their search for possible alternatives. The complexity of fair use in copyright disputes is a stumbling block in courts, according to the Copyright Office. “Faire use is extremely fact-specific and typically requires courts to examine decades of judicial precedent”, the Copyright Office explained. “Therefore, courts need to be familiar with specific copyright law and judicial precedent when a copyright claim is brought before them,” the Copyright Office said. This is something the office needs to consider when they are searching for new alternatives.

Currently, the Copyright Office is soliciting comments from the public to help it write the report, which will then be passed on to the US Congress. It is interesting to see whether the report will have an effect on the current copyright law. Especially because a similar matter was discussed in 2006 in the US, but then the Congress failed to act.

Reference: Artinfo.com

By: Karen Groen