The Authors Alliance urged the U.S. Copyright Office to reconsider implementing its proposed extended collective licensing pilot program for mass digitization projects, saying in a Friday filing the current program proposal doesn't adequately address authors' interests. The pilot program proposal also doesn't consider the complexities involved in managing licenses owned by multiple copyright owners. Authors Alliance co-founder Pamela Samuelson, a University of California-Berkeley School of Law professor, separately offered alternative proposals to the CO, including having Congress adopt a permanent exemption to U.S. copyright law that would allow nonprofit libraries to digitize their collections and make those digital copies available on library premises for research purposes.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that copyright on “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” should revert to the heirs of song co-writer John Frederick Coots in December 2016. That overturned a 2013 ruling by the U.S. District Court in New York that granted summary judgment to current copyright owner EMI. The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers ranked “Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town” in 2014 as the most-performed holiday song of the year. The copyright on “Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town” is to expire in 2029. Coots had reached deals with preceding publishers in 1934, 1951 and 1981 to grant or extend his publishers’ rights to the song. District Court Judge Shira Scheindlin ruled in 2013 that Coots’ heirs couldn’t seek a termination of EMI’s rights to the song under the 1976 Copyright Act based on the publisher’s argument that Coots’ 1951 agreement with Leo Feist Inc. remained in effect. EMI owns Leo Feist’s catalog. The 2nd Circuit disagreed. Judge Debra Ann Livingston wrote in the court’s opinion that Coots’ 1981 renewal of his agreement “made it sufficiently clear that the parties intended to replace the earlier contract.” Since the 1981 agreement is the one currently in effect, provisions in the 1976 Copyright Act make Coots' heirs’ 2007 notice terminating EMI’s rights to “Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town” is valid, the 2nd Circuit said. Coots’ heirs’ lawyer Thomas Landry said in a statement that he appreciates the 2nd Circuit’s “well-reasoned decision,” which he said clarifies the 1976 Copyright Act’s effect on termination rights. EMI didn’t comment.

The Copyright Office (CO) anticipates releasing its ruling on proposed exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act Section 1201’s ban on the circumvention of technological protection measures (TPMs) Oct. 28, a spokeswoman confirmed Thursday. CO officials have been considering 27 proposed Section 1201 exemptions (see 1505140070 and 1505260050), including a new cellphone unlocking exemption and several other jailbreaking exemptions. A proposed exemption that would allow security researchers to circumvent TPMs on vehicle software has drawn renewed interest in recent weeks following the EPA’s claim in late September that Volkswagen had used software in its diesel vehicles between 2008 and this year to reduce emissions toxicity during emissions tests (see 1509220060).

Recent Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) rulings adopting two separate settlements involving SoundExchange “wrap up some aspects” of CRB’s ongoing 2016-2020 webcasting rate-setting proceeding, while a separate Copyright Office ruling on the admissibility of direct license terms as possible benchmarks “could affect aspects of the proceeding not resolved by the CRB’s orders,” Fletcher Heald lawyer Kevin Goldberg said in a blog post Wednesday. CRB adopted most of an agreement in late September between SoundExchange and College Broadcasters Inc. for the 2016-2020 term that sets the rates for digital performances of sound recordings by noncommercial educational webcasters (see 1509290050). CRB adopted a partial agreement last week between SoundExchange and a group of public radio stations led by NPR and CPB that mostly leaves in place rates and terms from the 2011-2015 term. That partial agreement allows public radio to continue to directly administer arrangements, “so eligible stations should be on the lookout for direct notice(s) from NPR or an NPR affiliated entity for guidance,” Goldberg said. Register of Copyrights Maria Pallante ruled in late September that the CRB isn’t prohibited from using Pandora’s past direct licensing deals with independent music label rights consortium Merlin and independent label Naxos as possible benchmarks for the 2016-2020 webcasting proceeding (see 1509210054). That ruling is likely to benefit webcasters since Pandora’s direct license deals “stand out as actual, concrete examples of what a willing buyer and willing seller in this marketplace would agree on -- in, fact, have agreed on -- as the actual value for digital performance of a sound recording,” Goldberg said. “In that regard they may provide the CRB more persuasive evidence of the proper rates to be set.”

The Patent and Trademark Office unveiled its newly developed icons for intellectual property, intended to "help spread awareness about IP while engaging with the public," Deputy Director Russ Slifer said in an agency blog post Friday. The 19 symbols, developed through the PTO Iconathon workshop, were designed to universally represent IP, and include icons for concepts such as infringement, invention, patent pending, STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and trademark, said Slifer.

The Copyright Alliance will become a “superhero for the copyright community,” new Executive Director Keith Kupferschmid said Wednesday in a blog post. “It astonishes me how the perceived divide” between the copyright and technology communities “is so often exaggerated and emphasized,” Kupferschmid said, noting his experience working with both communities in his former role as Software & Information Industry Association general counsel. “I do not perceive the copyright and technology communities as warring factions. Both groups rely on copyright to promote and protect their creativity and innovation and both depend on innovation and technology to develop different models for making these new creations and inventions available to the public to enjoy.” The Copyright Alliance should “become a clearinghouse for copyright information” for a diverse group of stakeholders, Kupferschmid said. The group should “assist these creators by providing services that will help them register their works with the Copyright Office (CO) and to enforce their rights against those who violate them,” he said. The Copyright Alliance should also make its primary policy focus the modernization of the CO since it's the main issue that all stakeholders agree on, Kupferschmid said.

The Copyright Royalty Board published final regulations setting the rates for digital performances of sound recording by noncommercial educational webcasters, said Monday's Federal Register. The rates cover Jan.1, 2016, to Dec. 31, 2020, the copyright royalty judges (CRJ) said. “The agreement reached voluntarily between SoundExchange and CBI [College Broadcasters, Inc.] establishes a reasonable basis for setting statutory terms and rates for noncommercial educational webcasters.” The Register of Copyrights also issued a memorandum opinion that CRJs are allowed to consider direct licensing agreements that include terms similar to the 2009 webcaster settlement agreements as benchmarks or corroborative evidence. SoundExchange had argued such agreements couldn't be considered by CRJs, while broadcasters wanted the CRJs to be able to consider such agreements when setting rates (see 1507210071).

The Congressional Budget Office estimated that implementation of the Senate Protecting American Talent and Entrepreneurship Act (S-1137) would cost the federal government $3 million during the period of 2016-2020, and increase operating costs at the Patent and Trademark Office by about $70 million in the same period. The CBO said that enacting the bill would not affect direct spending, and costs for public and private entities to comply with the mandate would fall "well below" the annual intergovernmental and private-sector thresholds of $77 million and $154 million, respectively, in 2015.

The Copyright Office's eCO online copyright registration system will be offline beginning at 5 p.m. Eastern Friday for a system upgrade, the CO said. The eCO system is expected to go back online by 3 p.m. Sunday, the CO said.

Public Knowledge praised the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles for the court's Tuesday ruling that Warner/Chappell's copyright claim on the “Happy Birthday to You” song is invalid. U.S. District Judge George King ruled that Warner/Chappell and other companies that previously owned the right to the song didn't have a valid claim because the original copyright claim filed in 1935 by the Clayton F. Summy Co. pertained only to certain piano arrangements of the song rather than the song itself (see 1509230072). The ruling “is a welcome victory for the public,” said Public Knowledge Policy Counsel Raza Panjwani in a news release on Tuesday. “Although this decision does not mean that 'Happy Birthday' is unquestionably in the public domain, it dismantles Warner/Chappell’s unfounded claims of ownership.” The district court's decision “also raises serious concerns as to how much of our culture remains under lock and key on the basis of flimsy or barely credible claims of ownership,” Panjwani said. “Thanks to multiple extensions of copyright term length, copyrights have remained in effect while the records that can definitively answer questions of ownership or public domain status moulder away.”