What Happened?
Washington, DC-based United States Copyright Office has Promoted Jacqueline C. Charlesworth as General Counsel
About the Company
The United States Copyright Office, and the position of Register of Copyrights, were created by Congress in 1897. The Register directs the Copyright Office as a separate federal department within the Library of Congress, under the general oversight of the Librarian, pursuant to specific statutory authorities set forth in the United States Copyright Act. Earlier in the Nation`s history, from 1870-1896, the Librarian of Congress administered copyright registration (at that time mostly books) directly, and earlier still, from 1790-1896, U.S. district courts were responsible for doing so. Today, the Copyright Office is responsible for administering a complex and dynamic set of laws, which include registration, the recordation of title and licenses, a number of statutory licensing provisions, and other aspects of the 1976 Copyright Act and the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act. By statute, the Register of Copyrights is the principal advisor to Congress on national and international copyright matters, testifying upon request and providing ongoing leadership and impartial expertise on copyright law and policy. Congress relies upon, and directs, the Copyright Office to provide critical law and policy services, including domestic and international policy analysis, legislative support for Congress, litigation support, assistance to courts and executive branch agencies, participation on U.S. delegations to international meetings, and public information and education programs. The past few years have been particularly active, as Copyright Office lawyers assisted Congress with more than twenty copyright review hearings and prepared numerous timely reports, including for example, The Making Available Right in the United States, Copyright and the Music Marketplace, Software-Enabled Consumer Products, and Orphan Works and Mass Digitization. As of early 2017, the Copyright Office has approximately 400 employees, the majority of whom examine and register hundreds of thousands of copyright claims in books, journals, music, movies, sound recordings, software, photographs, and other works of original authorship each year. In fiscal year 2016, the Office processed over 468,000 claims for registration, issued over 414,000 registrations, received 91percent of claims via our online application system, and collected $30 million in fees from registration. The Office also acts as a conduit for the Library, providing certain works of authorship, known as copyright deposits, to the Library for its collections. In fiscal year 2016, the Office forwarded more than 636,000 works, worth a net value of $35.6 million, to the Library. During calendar year 2016, the Office collected over $244 million in royalty payments from compulsory and statutory licenses under sections 111, 119, and 1003. In recent years, the Office has taken steps, through a set of public discussions, to propose ways to modernize the Copyright Office by examining relationships between the law, regulations, registration practices, technology, access to data, and the evolving copyright marketplace. Finally, the Copyright Office works regularly with the Department of Justice, the Department of State, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the Department of Commerce, including the Patent and Trademark Office, and the Office of the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator.
About the Person
Jacqueline C. Charlesworth as General Counsel of the U.S. Copyright Office and Associate Register of Copyrights. Charlesworth most recently served as Senior Counsel to the Register, advising the Register on a broad range of legal and policy matters affecting the Copyright Office and the national copyright system, including litigation, rulemakings and a Congressionally directed study regarding small copyright claims. In her new role, Charlesworth will manage the staff and functions of the General Counsel's Office. That office provides legal guidance to the various divisions and programs of the Copyright Office, including the national registration and recordation systems, and is frequently called upon by Congressional offices, the Department of Justice and other federal agencies for advice and assistance. The General Counsel is a recognized expert within the U.S. government and the broader legal community regarding the interpretation and application of the Copyright Act. Charlesworth joined the Copyright Office in 2012 following several years of private practice at New York City law firms, including Morrison & Foerster LLP, where she represented copyright owners and users of copyrighted works in litigation, regulatory, and transactional matters. From 2006 to 2008, Charlesworth served as Senior Vice President and General Counsel of the National Music Publishers' Association and from 2001 to 2006 was General Counsel of The Harry Fox Agency, Inc., the leading agency in the United States for the licensing of mechanical rights in musical works. Charlesworth holds a B.A. in American Civilization from Brown University and a J.D. from Yale Law School, where she served as an executive committee editor of The Yale Law Journal. Following law school, Charlesworth clerked for the Honorable Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and the Honorable Betty B. Fletcher of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
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