S. 167 passes both houses
Senate Bill 167, the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act, was passed in the House of Representatives on April 19, after being passed in the Senate in February. The bill was sponsored by Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), who is known for his active involvement in copyright legislation, and co-sponsored by Lamar Alexander (R-TN), John Cornyn (R-TX), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT).
The bill includes the Family Movie Act of 2005, which addresses the use of technology by viewers in their private homes to skip portions of movies that they deem offensive. The House Report, H.R. 109-33, says: “The Committee strongly believes that, subject to certain conditions, copyright and trademark law should not be used to limit a parent’s right to control what their children watch in the privacy of their own home.”
The House Report also states that the content-skipping exemption is not intended to address commercial-skipping devices, which would still be subject to legal challenge. And it reports that the Judiciary Committee reviewing the legislation had hoped to hear testimony from film directors regarding their moral rights claims relating to content-skipping, but “no director was willing to testify.”
S. 167 also includes the Artists’ Rights and Theft Prevention Act of 2005 (a/k/a the ART Act), which creates criminal penalties under Title 18 of the U.S. Code for knowing use or attempted use of video recording devices to record or transmit a copy of motion pictures made from performances in movie theaters. The House Report says that fair use is not a defense to violation of the ART Act.
Possession of a video recording device in a theater will be considered as evidence but is not sufficient to support a conviction. Theaters have immunity from civil or criminal prosecution for detaining suspects for the purpose of questioning or summoning law enforcement, as long as there is reasonable cause for the detention, and the detention is done in a reasonable manner for a reasonable period of time. The House Report says this is a companion to shopkeeper privilege statutes under State law.
The ART Act expands criminal liability for willful copyright infringement, by imposing this liability for making a work available on a computer network accessible to members of the public, if the work has not yet been commercially released in copies to the public. This applies to computer programs, music and audiovisual works.
S. 167 also contains the National Film Preservation Act of 2005 and The Preservation of Orphan Works Act. These would re-authorize the National Film Preservation Foundation, and create an exemption from infringement for libraries and archives for so-called “orphaned” works that are motion pictures, musical works and pictorial, graphical or sculptural works.
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