In 1988, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act was created – and, although Internet usage has increased drastically since, it was only just last week that the US Copyright Office announced that they are welcoming petitions to change the act in regards to the music industry.
In their press release last Thursday, they announced that they would formally accept public comments related to Section 512 of title 17, US Code, until April 1 at 11:59pm eastern time.
“While Congress understood that it would be essential to address online infringement as the internet continued to grow, it may have been difficult to anticipate the online world as we now know it, where each day users upload hundreds of millions of photos, videos and other items, and service providers receive over a million notices of alleged infringement. The growth of the internet has highlighted issues concerning section 512 that appear ripe for study.” – US Copyright Office
Although it was a quick deadline, artists including Deadmau5, Katy Perry, Lionel Richie, Billy Joel, Steve Tyler and numerous others submitted petitions.
By gathering these petitions, there are hopes that the US Copyright Office will find a way to acceptably alter the Copyright Act in order to address artists fairly.
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