U.S. Commerce Department requests comments on copyright

Hey, everyone, it’s that time again! What time, you say? Time to write to the government about copyright policies! A while ago we covered Obama’s new copyright czar’s request for guidance on what stakeholders thought the role of her office ought to be. Then we covered the responses (here and here).

Now the U.S. Commerce Department’s Internet Policy Task Force wants comments about “the protection of copyrighted works online and the relationship between copyright law and innovation in the Internet economy.” The official Notice of Inquiry can be viewed here (PDF).

The Internet Policy Task force wants to come up with policies that will:

1. Generate benefits for rights holders of creative works accessible online and make recommendations with respect to those who infringe on those rights;
2. Enable the robust and free flow of information to facilitate innovation and growth of the Internet economy; and
3. Ensure transparency and due process in cooperative efforts to build confidence in the Internet as a means of distributing copyrighted works.

I wish them luck. At least in the current copyright mindset, it seems to me that some of those goals are darned near mutually exclusive. It’s not clear to me how this is going to relate to the actions or jurisdiction of the copyright czar’s office.

Comments can be e-mailed to copyright-noi-2010@ntia.doc.gov and need to be in by November 19th. Comments will be posted on the Internet Policy Task Force website (though don’t expect to see any of the ones from the heavy hitters until that deadline; most major stakeholders prefer to wait to file so that nobody can file responses).

(Found via Techdirt.)