Last night, the House Judiciary Committee marked up Rep. Hakeem Jeffries’ (D-NY) bill, “Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement Act of 2019,” (H.R. 2426), to establish a new Copyright Claim Board within the United States Copyright Office. Public Knowledge opposes the bill as written due to grave concerns with its contents.
The following can be attributed to Meredith Rose, Policy Counsel at Public Knowledge:
“A small claims court needs to be accountable, appealable, and limited to reasonable damage levels. The system envisioned by CASE is none of those. It lacks meaningful appealability, and offers damage caps that are higher than the median income for over a quarter of all Americans. This bill as written can literally bankrupt individuals — while letting corporations and sophisticated mass infringers off the hook entirely — and do so without any meaningful right of appeal. We urge lawmakers to critically reexamine the bill.”
You may view our recent blog post, “What a Reasonable Copyright Small-Claims Court Would Look Like,” for more information. You may also view this full release.
Members of the media may contact Communications Director Shiva Stella with inquiries, interview requests, or to join the Public Knowledge press list at shiva@publicknowledge.org or 405-249-9435.