Date: Wed, 26 Oct 2016 00:25:40 +0000
For what it’s worth, Billboard is reporting (citing “several sources,” all unnamed) that Pallante was not told about her change in jobs prior to the public announcement, and subsequently came to work to find that she’d been locked out of the LC computer system:
http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/7556764/maria-pallante-departure-copyright-congress
Billboard is something of a biased source, of course, given that it’s a music-industry paper.
Speaking of biased sources, Digital Music News believes that Google was behind the firing:
http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2016/10/24/pallante-dismissed-copyrights-office-google/
From the other end of the bias spectrum, the Public Knowledge blog excoriated the Copyright Office generally and Pallante in particular in a posting this past August, characterizing the Copyright Office as a “captured agency”:
https://www.publicknowledge.org/news-blog/blogs/the-growing-list-of-how-the-copyright-office-has-failed-us
So yeah, it seems like these political waters are somewhat shark-infested. There’s going to be some fierce Congressional lobbying from both sides of the IP divide over the next few months.
---
Rick Anderson
Assoc. Dean for Collections & Scholarly Communication
Marriott Library, University of Utah
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On 10/25/16, 5:07 PM, "LibLicense-L Discussion Forum on behalf of LIBLICENSE" wrote:
From: "Jim O'Donnell" <
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Date: Tue, 25 Oct 2016 14:53:28 -0700
There's a lot of buzz around this story today. A few days ago, it was
a less marked story about a personnel shift. Now it has taken on
political overtones.
I'm struck remembering that during Hayden's hearing for confirmation,
a Missouri legislator seemed to take for granted that the Copyright
Office doesn't belong in LC at all; many people I respect think
there's no traction for a move, but this feels like the part of the
movie where the music gets a little more dramatic and the camera
angles suggestive.
I have to think that Hayden herself is smart and well-advised and is
acting thoughtfully, and I have confidence she'll steer towards a good
strategy. But there might be sharks in that water.
Jim O'Donnell
ASU
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Gary Price <
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Date: Tue, Oct 25, 2016 at 2:09 PM
Subject: Maria Pallante Resigns from U.S. Copyright Office
From Politico:
"Register of Copyrights Maria Pallante submitted her resignation to
Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden on Monday, a Library spokesperson
confirmed. Pallante had been removed as head of the Copyright Office
on Friday and was reassigned to be a senior adviser for digital
strategy — but she’s not taking the job. In a statement, House
Judiciary Committee leaders Bob Goodlatte and John Conyers called her
departure “a tremendous loss” for the office and for American
creators. The lawmakers, who are in the middle of a broad review of
copyright law, also suggested it might be time for a reassessment of
how the register of copyrights is selected — right now, the decision
is up to the Librarian of Congress. We’re tracking."
Source URL:
http://www.politico.com/tipsheets/morning-tech/2016/10/how-the-fcc-could-factor-into-at-t-time-warner-217039
Statement by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.)
and Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.)
https://judiciary.house.gov/press-release/goodlatte-conyers-statement-resignation-maria-pallante/
Gary D. Price, MLIS
Co-Founder and Editor, Library Journal's infoDOCKET
Information Industry Analyst
Librarian