Hearings on Proposed Exemptions to Rulemaking

The Copyright Office will be conducting public hearings in Los Angeles, California and Washington, DC to hear testimony relating to the proposed exemptions in this rulemaking. The date for the hearing in Los Angeles, CA is May 17, 2012. The dates for the Washington, DC hearings are May 31, 2012, June 4, 2012, and June 5, 2012. For the agenda, go to http://www.copyright.gov/1201/hearings/2012/agenda/.

The hearings will be organized by subject matter and will be organized into separate sessions on each of the proposed classes of works.  Witnesses testifying in support of and in opposition to each class will testify as part of the same panel. Testimony shall consist of presentations of facts and legal argument, followed by questions from Copyright Office staff. 

In addition to the hearings described above, the Office will be conducting a special
“Technology Hearing” to give proponents and opponents of proposed classes of works an
opportunity to conduct demonstrations of various technologies pertinent to the merits of the
proposals. This hearing will be primarily factual in nature. Witnesses wishing to present
demonstrations of more than five minutes are asked to do so at this hearing rather than at the other hearings, in order to permit the other hearings to proceed on schedule. Witnesses will be responsible for providing any hardware or software necessary to conduct a demonstration. This hearing shall take place on Friday, May 11, 2012 in Washington DC. The Office believes that conducting this hearing one week before the commencement of the other hearings will give Copyright Office staff and other witnesses an opportunity to take the technology demonstrations into account at the later hearings. The Technology Hearing will be limited to the demonstration and explanation of particular technologies that are pertinent to the subject matter of the rulemaking proceeding. Persons participating in the Technology Hearing should be prepared to bring those technologies to the subsequent hearing on the proposed class(es) to which the technology is relevant, if they or their organizations are attending that hearing, in the event that questions are raised at the subsequent hearing. The Technology Hearing will be video recorded, and the Office will endeavor to make copies of those video recordings available as soon as possible to persons who will be witnesses at the later hearing and will be unable to attend the Technology Hearing.