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Under section 117, an action for infringement of a copyrighted work by means of a computer would necessarily be a federal action brought under the new Title 17. The court, in deciding the scope of exclusive rights in the computer area, would first need to determine the applicable law, whether State common law or the Act of 1909. Having determined what law was applicable, its decision would depend upon its interpretation of what that law was on the point on the day before the effective date of the new statute.
SECTION 118. PUBLIC BROADCASTING
General Background
During the consideration in the Congress of the copyright revision legislation, public broadcasting proposed the addition to the bill of a section providing a compulsory license for the use of certain categories of copyrighted works by public broadcasting. Senator Charles McC Mathias, Jr. introduced such an amendment during the 93rd Congress to S. 1361, but the amendment was not actively considered with the understanding that the issue would be fully studied in the 94th Congress.
The Subcommittee on Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights this year gave detailed consideration to the issues presented by the amendment of Senator Mathias. During the Subcommittee proceedings. the Chairman of the Subcommittee requested the representatives of public broadcasting and of the copyright proprietors to explore the possibility of achieving agreements outside the copyright legislation, which would assure public broadcasting access to copyrighted materials upon the payment of reasonable royalties. Considerable progress was made during these discussions, and consequently the Subcommittee did not incorporate a public broadcasting compulsory license in S. 22. The Chairman and members of the Subcommittee issued a joint statement which noted that “tentative understandings have been achieved on a number of issues” and expresed the view of the Subcommittee that the isues still in dispute could be resolved “if the parties seek reasonable accommodations.”
When the Committee on the Judiciary met on S. 22 on October 7, 1975, several issues still remained unresolved. These principally involve the amount of royalty payments and procedures for arbitration of disputes, the absence of central clearance bodies for certain categories of copyrighted works, and the necessity of an antitrust immunity provision to enable the implementation of a private agreement. Consequently the Committee by majority vote decided to incorporate in S. 22 a public broadcasting amendment proposed by Senator Mathias. While adopting this section, the Committee nevertheless still strongly urges the parties to continue negotiations to reach private agreements whereever possible. The Committee believes that this section should be appropriately modified to reflect such agreements as may be reached prior to enactment.
Policy Considerations
The proponents of the public broadcasting compulsory license contend that the creation of such a license is essential to assure public broadcasting broad access to copyrighted materials at reasonable royal-
