Proposed Solution: Introduce clearer, stronger obligations for digital platforms to identify and remove infringing content proactively, possibly leveraging AI, and implement meaningful penalties for platforms that fail to act.

2. Fair Use Clarification and Expansion

Issue: The boundaries of fair use remain unclear, leading to inconsistent judicial outcomes and fear of litigation for users engaging in transformative uses.

Proposed Solution: Congress could enact clearer statutory guidelines or safe harbors that explicitly define transformative uses, allowing for a more balanced approach to creative expression while maintaining copyright protections for original creators.

4. Royalty Transparency and Audits

Issue: Many artists are unaware of their actual earnings due to opaque royalty accounting practices by labels, publishers, and streaming platforms.

Proposed Solution: Implement mandatory royalty transparency laws that require platforms to provide clear, accessible, and standardized royalty breakdowns, as well as easier pathways for artists to conduct audits without fear of retaliation.

Issue: The rise of AI-generated content challenges traditional notions of authorship and copyright eligibility.

Proposed Solution: Establish guidelines to distinguish between AI-assisted and AI-generated works. For AI-assisted works, grant copyright protection to the human creator directing the AI’s creative input, while providing alternative protections or public domain status for entirely AI-generated works.

6. Copyright in User-Generated Content and Remix Culture

Proposed Solution: Create a statutory license or micro-licensing system for user-generated content that allows creators to legally use small parts of copyrighted works without facing prohibitive fees or lawsuits, while still compensating original creators fairly.

Proposed Solution: Implement stronger protections against abusive copyright litigation and takedown requests by requiring a more thorough vetting process and penalties for baseless claims, especially targeting bad-faith claims by large corporate rights holders.

8. Educational and Research Exceptions

Issue: Educators and researchers often face obstacles in accessing copyrighted materials for teaching or scholarly purposes due to unclear or restrictive licensing requirements.

Proposed Solution: Expand statutory exemptions for educational and research purposes, making it easier to access and use copyrighted works for non-commercial and academic uses, and create a standardized license for academic institutions.

9. Moral Rights and Attribution

Issue: In the U.S., moral rights (the right to attribution and to protect the integrity of the work) are not as robust as in other countries, often leaving creators vulnerable to misrepresentation or alteration of their works. Proposed Solution: Strengthen moral rights protections, particularly around the right to attribution, ensuring that creators retain more control over how their work is used or altered, even after they transfer the economic rights to their work.

See also creative commons attribution simplification

10. Orphan Works and Access to Cultural Heritage

These proposed solutions seek to balance the rights of creators with public access to creative works, adapting copyright law to the modern digital landscape.

If you can think of any other issues that need to be on our list, please let us know!