New copyright legislation introduced

Congress has introduced three new bills that touch on copyrights. Whether these bills will be heavily amended, let alone passed, is not known. But, their filing gives us some idea of what Congress is considering for copyright.

The first is the “Copyright Protection for Civilian Faculty of Certain Accredited Institutions.” In short, some civilian faculty of military institutions that write journal articles will own the copyright in the work, but may have to provide a license to the U.S. Government.

The next, the “Satellite Television Community Protection and Promotion Act of 2019,” amends the law to narrow the definition of “unserved households” that can receive compulsory licenses for satellite re-transmission of network stations and “super stations.”