March 18, 2022
AAP Applauds Ranking Member Tillis and Chairman Leahy for Introducing the SMART Copyright Act
Today, Senate Judiciary Intellectual Property Subcommittee Ranking Member Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) introduced the SMART Copyright Act of 2022, a bill designed to require tech platforms to implement technical measures to identify and protect copyrighted works from infringement online. Following is the statement of AAP President and CEO, Maria A. Pallante, on the bill’s introduction:
“We applaud Ranking Member Tillis and Chairman Leahy for introducing the SMART Copyright Act. For far too long, tech platforms have failed to live up to their end of the bargain in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), and instead have consistently evaded their commitment and responsibility to work together with copyright owners to use standard technical measures to identify and protect copyrighted works from infringement online. As a result, nearly 25 years after the DMCA’s enactment, not a single technical measure has been ruled to be a “standard technical measure” under the law, despite the widespread presence of effective technological solutions that tech platforms could and should implement.
We thank Ranking Member Tillis and Chairman Leahy for their leadership in recognizing this serious problem in the DMCA and working to address it by creating a triennial rulemaking process at the U.S. Copyright Office to designate technical measures that platforms must implement. We are deeply grateful for the Senators’ longstanding support of a modern and effective copyright system, and we look forward to working together with them and their colleagues in Congress as this bill is considered.”