2015 Articles

Optional Copyright Renewal? Lessons for Designing Copyright Systems

Reese, R. Anthony

When Register of Copyrights Maria Pallante gave the Manges Lecture two years ago, she suggested that we explore drafting the “Next Great Copyright Act.” Creating that Act will require hard thinking about how to adapt copyright law to meet the challenges of our current legal, cultural, and technological era. But even with great ideas about how to adapt the law, creating the Next Great Copyright Act will also require designing a copyright statute that implements those ideas. Tonight, I’d like to explore the constraints and complexities that will confront the copyright bar as we try to design particular features of a “Next Great Copyright Act.”