Commerce Department Recommends Amendments to Statutory Damages Provisions in Copyright Act

A report issued by the US Department of Commerce recommends amendments to copyright law that would provide both more guidance and greater flexibility to courts in awarding statutory damages. The recommended amendments would ensure continued meaningful protection for intellectual property while preserving the dynamic innovation that has made digital technology so important to the American economy.

The report is a product of the Department of Commerce’s Internet Policy Task Force (IPTF). In the report, “White Paper on Remixes, First Sale, and Statutory Damages,” the Department’s Internet Policy Task Force sets forth its conclusions on three important copyright topics in the digital age: (1) the legal framework for the creation of remixes; (2) the relevance and scope of the “first sale doctrine”; and (3) the appropriate calibration of statutory damages in the contexts of individual file sharers and secondary liability for large-scale infringement.