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Archive: 2020 (29 Posts)

Promoting Progress: Celebrating the Constitution’s Intellectual Property Clause

Posted by: Alison Hall

Today is Constitution Day, which is a day of great celebration in copyright. In addition to all of the other treasures in the Constitution, of which there are many, our country's founding document includes the foundation for U.S. copyright law. In article 1, section 8, clause 8, the Constitution states that Congress has the power to enact laws to "promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries." And Congress obliged, passing the first federal copyright law in 1790, updating it throughout the years to address the changing times.

Photographic illustration combining image of facade of court, text of Constitution and Copyright Office 150th anniversary graphics

Historic Court Cases That Helped Shape Scope of Copyright Protections

Posted by: Anandashankar Mazumdar

As the Copyright Office celebrates its 150th birthday, we can look back more than 240 years through the history of copyright protections in the United States to see how the law has changed in response to changing technologies and economics. The authors of the U.S. Constitution believed that copyright was important enough to explicitly grant …

The Copyright Office's new warehouse (exterior view)

A New Copyright Office Warehouse–25 Years in the Making

Posted by: Holland Gormley

The following is a guest post by Paul Capel, Supervisory Records Management Section Head. The United States Copyright Office holds the most comprehensive collection of copyright records in the world. The Office has over 200,000 boxes of deposit copies spread among three storage facilities in Landover, Maryland; a contracted space in Pennsylvania; and the National …

Deposit copies ready for registration specialists

Keep Moving Forward: Performance of the Copyright Office during COVID-19

Posted by: George Thuronyi

The following is a guest post by Maria Strong, Acting Register of Copyrights. The U.S. Copyright Office has taken a number of actions to ensure that mission-critical functions continue during the ongoing challenges caused by COVID-19. I commend our staff for maintaining a continued high level of service under these challenging conditions and greatly appreciate …

Copyright in Pride

Posted by: Holland Gormley

June is Pride Month, and this year is the 50th anniversary of the first pride parade in New York City. What do copyright and pride have in common? Quite a bit, actually. Where would our celebrations, our heroes, and our increasing understanding of advocacy and allyship be without posters and speeches? Literature? Zines? Given that, …