Steve Vondran, CEO Copyright Policy Institute, Washington, D.C.
Here are 10 important copyright law public policy issues that should be addressed going into 2025 to make copyright law more fair, equitable and understandable.
1. Digital Copyright Enforcement & Platform Accountability
Issue: Current copyright enforcement mechanisms place too much responsibility on creators to police platforms for infringing content.
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.
3. Restructuring Copyright Terms
Issue: The current term of copyright protection is lengthy (life of the author plus 70 years), which can stifle access to works that should be entering the public domain.
Proposed Solution: Shorten the term of copyright protection (e.g., life of the author plus 50 years), or allow for a more flexible renewal process, where the creator has to actively renew their copyright at specific intervals.
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.
5. AI-Generated Works and Copyright Eligibility
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
Issue: Copyright laws do not adequately address the burgeoning remix culture of digital media, where users create derivative works from copyrighted content.
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.
7. Small Creators vs. Corporate Copyright Holders
Issue: Large corporations often exploit copyright law to stifle small creators and competition through aggressive takedowns and lawsuits.
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.
10. Orphan Works and Access to Cultural Heritage
Issue: Many works remain under copyright protection, but the original creators or rights holders cannot be located, leaving these works in legal limbo and inaccessible to the public.
Proposed Solution: Create a legal framework for the use of orphan works, allowing them to be used for educational, research, or cultural preservation purposes after a reasonable search for the rights holder. If the rights holder later emerges, they should be compensated but not given the right to retroactively block the use of the work.
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!