Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Notice Of Public Roundtables to Discuss Vital Copyright Issues

Four roundtables are scheduled to be held in: (1) Nashville, TN on May 21, 2014, (2) Cambridge, MA on June 25, 2014, (3) Los Angeles, CA on July 29, 2014, and (4) Berkeley, CA on July 30, 2014. All roundtables will begin at 8:30 a.m. and end at 5:00 p.m. Requests to participate and observe are due three weeks in advance of each of the respective roundtables on the following dates, by 5:00 p.m. E.S.T.: (1) April 30, 2014 for the Nashville roundtable, (2) June 4, 2014 for the Cambridge roundtable, (3) July 8, 2014 for the Los Angeles roundtable, and (4) July 9, 2014 for the Berkeley roundtable. The agendas and webcast information will be available a week before each of the roundtables on the Task Force Web site, http://www.ntia.doc.gov/Internetpolicytaskforce and the USPTO's Web site, http://www.uspto.gov/ip/global/copyrights/index.jsp

The purpose of the planned roundtables is to seek additional input from the public in order for the Task Force to have a complete and thorough record upon which to make recommendations.

Each of the scheduled roundtables will be divided into separate, consecutive, sessions addressing the following topics raised in the Green Paper:

(1) The legal framework for the creation of remixes;
(2) the relevance and scope of the first sale doctrine in the digital environment; and
(3) the appropriate calibration of statutory damages in the contexts of
     (i) individual file sharers and
     (ii) secondary liability for large-scale infringement.
 
Time will be reserved at the end of each session within each roundtable for observers and viewers to comment upon the topic discussed during the session. While the subject matter will be consistent across each of the four roundtables, the allotted time for each session may vary to accommodate the specific interests of the participants at each location. In order to maximize participation, no formal opening statements or presentations are expected.
 
The roundtables will focus on (1) the questions set out in the October 3rd Federal Register Notice, 78 FR at 61338-39, (2) the issues raised in the stakeholder comments filed both before and after the Dec. 12 meeting, and (3) points made at the December 12th public meeting. Individuals participating in the roundtables may be posed questions on any of these issues.
 
Interested parties may request to participate in, or to observe, the roundtable discussions by submitting a request form, available at https://www.signup4.net/public/ap.aspx?EID=THEG32E&OID=130. [1] Participation will entail responding to questions from Task Force members and engaging with other participants, whereas observation will entail listening to, but not participating in, the discussions, although there will be time for observers to comment at the end of the discussion. Parties who wish to attend roundtables in multiple locations should submit a separate request form for each location. When completing request forms, interested parties should identify the particular discussion or discussions they wish to participate in or observe. We will respond to the requests to participate or observe two weeks before the day the roundtable will be held. Please note that the Task Force may not be able to grant all requests but will seek to maximize participation to the extent possible.
 
Participants and observers should arrive at least one-half hour prior to the start of the roundtable and must present valid government-issued photo identification upon arrival. The Task Force will provide additional information on directions and parking in the agendas for each of the roundtables.
The roundtables will be webcast. A transcription service will also be present. The transcriptions will be made available on both the Task Force and USPTO Web sites after each roundtable.

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