Copyright Office Announces Request for Information on the Development and Use of Standard Technical Measures

The U.S. Copyright Office has published a Federal Register notice requesting information on the development and use of standard technical measures for the protection of copyrighted works, as defined in section 512 of Title 17. After publishing its 2020 report, Section 512 of Title 17, the Copyright Office held virtual stakeholder discussions in September 2020 covering the legal foundation of STMs, current technologies and their potential for adoption as STMs, and means of identifying or developing STMs going forward. In June 2021, Senators Thom Tillis and Patrick Leahy asked the Office to further explore the identification and implementation of STMs under section 512(i).

This Notice of Inquiry on standard technical measures as defined in section 512(i) is separate from and complements the Office’s consultations on voluntarily deployed technical measures for identifying or protecting copyrighted works online, announced in the Federal Register on December 22, 2021, with the opening plenary session held on February 22, 2022.

For additional information, including instructions for submitting comments for the record, please visit the Office website. Comments are due no later than 11:59 p.m. eastern time on May 27, 2022.