UPDATE: Who is John Conyers and why should copyright owners care?

To understand the law it is important to learn about the people that write the law. The background of the people who write a law is important to understand the motivation for a law to exist. And understanding what motivates law makers can help predict what future laws may be written.

In a prior blog post we discussed Mr. John Conyers of the United States House of Representatives. You can review that blog post here: Who is John Conyers and why should copyright owners care? To briefly recap, copyright law in the United States is due for some revisions. The copyright law of the United States has not kept up with technology and many people believe it needs an overhaul. The House Judiciary Committee has just concluded a study on copyright law in the United States and is starting to propose bills to change the law. Representative John Conyers was the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee. Being the ranking member means that he is the most senior member of the political party that is not in control of congress. The chairman of House Judiciary Committee, Representative Robert Goodlatte, has announced that he will retire from congress after his term is up. Representative John Conyers has been accused of acting improperly and has stepped down from his role in the House Judiciary Committee.

In our prior blog post we speculated that Mr. Conyers had an interest in sponsoring bills to change to the copyright law along with Mr. Goodlatte. Because these two men spearheaded the effort to rewrite the copyright law it is likely they would want to see all that effort result in new laws. Both men would be necessary to get support for the law from their respective political parties. It was assumed that even though Mr. Conyers was leaving the House Judiciary Committee, he would still be in Congress and could still introduce bills

But on December 5th, Mr. Conyers announced that he will retire from congress immediately. What will this do to the efforts to reform United States Copyright Law?

Representative Jerrold Nadler, from New York, has replaced Mr. Conyers as ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee. He has expressed an interest in reforming United States copyright law, specifically, about changing the law surrounding sound recordings made before 1972.

Will Mr. Conyer’s departure derail the efforts to reform United States copyright law or will an even more qualified individual be put in a position to rewrite the law? We will have to wait and see.

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