S.167: The Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2005

Status

Introduced on Jan. 25, 2005 in the U.S. Senate. Senate passed S.167 on Feb. 1, 2005 on voice vote. Was approved by the House Judiciary Committee on March 9, 2005. The bill passed the House on April 19, 2005. President Bush signed it into law (PL 109-9) on April 27.

Full text of the bill are available here.

Summary

As the 109th Congress begins, legislation from the 108th Congress was sure to reappear. The first of these bills is the “Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2005,” or S.167. This bill encompasses a number of elements from last year:

Analysis

The Artists’ Rights and Theft Prevention Act of 2005 (ART Act) (formerly S.1932 from the 108th Congress)

The bill would make the unauthorized use of a video camera in a movie theater to transmit or make a copy of a copyrighted work into an imprisonable offense. Fair use protections guaranteed under copyright law would not apply. This version of the bill includes language that would provide protection under a “preregistration” scheme for a yet-to-be-released work, as previous versions did.

The Family Movie Act of 2005 (formerly H.R.4586 of the 108th Congress)

This bill provided an affirmative right for those who used technology to skip objectionable material, such as profanity, violence, or other adult material, in the audio / video works that they legally purchased. An example of such a technology is one that the company Clearplay provides for DVD players. This is a right that most believe manufacturers of technology and consumers already have. Additionally, technology manufacturers must provide a notice at the beginning each showing of the “altered” content stating that “the motion picture is altered from the performance intended by the director or copyright holder of the motion picture.” This version of the bill eliminates the language that might make users and manufacturers of ad-skipping technology automatically liable for copyright infringement.

The National Film Preservation Act of 2005

Reauthorizes the Librarian of Congress to carryout a comprehensive preservation program for motion pictures, in an effort to make the works more accessible for research and educational purposes.

Preservation of Orphan Works Act

The bill would allow libraries to create copies of certain copyrighted works that, in their last twenty years of copyright term, are no longer commercially exploited, and are not available at a reasonable price.