CNET: 'Copyright reform unlikely, advocates say'

CNET has an interesting report on a panel discussion featuring representatives from across the copyright spectrum at the Future of Music Coalition's "Policy Day." The upshot: don't expect major new copyright legislation from the new Congress. From someone who knows the legislative scene on copyright issues:

David Carson, general counsel for the U.S. Copyright Office, said he didn't expect Congress to get past performance rights issues and perhaps orphan rights.

"Congress rarely steps in and fixes anything" related to intellectual property, Carson said. "The Pro-IP Act was tinkering around the edges--there was nothing really in there. Legislation just doesn't seem to be the way to make progress, no matter what your definition of progress is."

Panelists ranging from the RIAA to what CNET terms the "copyleft" (love it!) also clashed over net neutrality and licensing issues, and pondered where the Obama Administration really stands on IP.

UPDATE: Much more from Paul Sweeting at ContentAgenda, including a rundown of some of the big cases winding their way through the courts: Cablevision, Viacom v. YouTube, and the Google class action book settlement (which still awaits court approval). Carson was especially hostile to the Second Circuit's Cablevision decision, saying, "It does real violence to fundamental aspects of copyright law" and calling it "wacky." Public Knowledge's Gigi Sohn had equally harsh words for the District Court's opinion (which the Second Circuit reversed), labeling it "whacked out." So if the Supreme Court decides to grant cert., we can look forward to more lawyers talking about which opinion was more "whack."