ALA Official Praises IPTF White Paper Recommendation on Changing Copyright Statutory Damage Rules

American Library Association Program on Public Access to Information Director Carrie Russell praised as “good news” the Internet Policy Task Force’s white paper recommending legislation to amend guidance to courts for determining statutory damages in copyright infringement cases (see 1601280065). The Library Copyright Alliance (LCA) and others have “lobbied for a review of copyright statutory damage framework for several years, so it is promising that the task force realized this was a problem,” Russell said Friday in an American Libraries blog post. “Whether Congress will act on this recommendation, time will tell.” ALA is a member of LCA. The IPTF’s recommendation against extending the first-sale doctrine to include digital transmissions “is not surprising” but the task force “took seriously” LCA’s input on e-book business models, saying “further action may be advisable” if libraries aren’t able to adequately serve patrons due to publishers’ restrictions, Russell said.