Press Releases

 House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Ranking Member John Conyers (D-Mich.) today announced that the House Judiciary Committee will continue the Committee’s listening tour as part of the comprehensive copyright review.  The House Judiciary Committee will travel to Silicon Valley on November 9^th and Los Angeles on November 10^th.  These discussions are expected to include a wide range of creators, innovators, technology professionals, and users of copyrighted works.  The Committee held a roundtable discussion as part of the copyright review listening tour in Nashville, Tennessee on September 22^nd.   

Chairman Goodlatte and Ranking Member Conyers issued the following statement on the next stops of the copyright review listening tour.

“Two years ago, the House Judiciary Committee launched a comprehensive review of our nation’s copyright laws, which have not been updated since 1976.  As technology continues to rapidly advance, we have a responsibility to ensure that our laws are keeping pace with these developments. 

“The Committee is traveling to locations across America to hear directly from creators and innovators about the challenges they face in their creative fields and what changes are needed to ensure U.S. copyright law reflects the digital age in which we live.  We look forward to continuing the productive dialog that we had in Nashville, the first stop of the Committee’s listening tour.”

Background: Chairman Goodlatte first announced the Judiciary Committee’s intention to undertake a comprehensive review of U.S. copyright law on April 24, 2013, in a speech before the World Intellectual Property Day celebration at the Library of Congress.  As part of the copyright review, the House Judiciary Committee has held 20 hearings which included testimony from 100 witnesses.  In July, Chairman Goodlatte and Ranking Member Conyers invited all prior witnesses of the Committee’s copyright review hearings and other interested stakeholders to meet with Committee staff and provide additional input on copyright policy issues.  To date nearly 50 meetings have been scheduled and those meetings, which are ongoing, will take several more weeks. In addition, Chairman Goodlatte and Ranking Member Conyers announced that the House Judiciary Committee would conduct a listening tour as part of the copyright review.  More information on the House Judiciary Committee’s comprehensive copyright review can be found here.