Page:H. Rept. No. 94-1733 (1976).djvu/79



House bill

The House bill deleted the clause of section 301(b) (3) enumerating illustrative examples of causes of action, such as certain types of misappropriation, not preempted under section 301. It revised the provision dealing with sound recordings fixed before February 15, 1972 to make the Federal preemption of rights in such works effective on February 15, 2047.

Conference substitute

The conference substitute adopts the House amendment of section 301.

Senate bill

The Senate bill contained no provisions for the deposit of unpublished transmission programs, or for the preservation of published and unpublished programs in a Federal archive.

House bill

The House bill amended section 407 to provide a basis for the Library of Congress to acquire, as a part of the copyright deposit system, copies or recordings of nonsyndicated radio and television programs. Under section 407(e) the Library would be authorized to tape programs off the air in all cases, and could under certain conditions obtain a copy or phonorecord from the copyright owner by gift, by loan for purposes of reproduction, or by purchase at cost. A correlative provision in Sec. 113 of the bill's Transitional and Supplementary Provisions established an American Television and Radio Archive in the Library of Congress to provide a repository for the preservation of radio and television programs.

Conference substitute

The conference substitute adopts the House amendments.

Senate bill

Chapter 5 of the Senate bill dealt with civil and criminal infringement of copyright and the remedies for both. Subsection (c) of section 504 allowed statutory damages within a stated dollar range, and clause (2) of that subsection provided for situations in which the maximum could be exceeded and the minimum lowered; the court was given discretion to reduce or remit statutory damages entirely where a teacher, librarian, or archivist believed that the infringing activity constituted fair use. Section 506 provided penalties for criminal infringement of a fine of up to $2,500 and imprisonment of up to one year for a first offense, with higher penalties for recidivism, special penalties for record and film piracy, and provision for forfeiture and destruction upon conviction. Section 509 of the Senate bill contained expanded provisions dealing with seizure and forfeiture in cases of criminal copyright infringement. Sec. 111 of the Transitional and Supplementary Provisions amended the provisions of the Criminal Code dealing with counterfeit phonograph record labels (18 U.S.C. § 2318) to provide higher criminal penalties and to make the seizure and forfeiture provisions of section 509 of the new copyright law applicable in such cases.