The last we heard from Dr. Hayden, she had just unceremoniously sacked Maria Pallante, the Register of Copyrights. Now she "invites the public to provide input" to her on "the knowledge, skills and abilities" required for Pallante's replacement.
Dr. Hayden is commonly understood to believe that copyrighted work should be "as widely accessible as possible." As Peggy McGlone writes in The Washington Post:
"[P]ersonnel changes are not uncommon when a new leader comes in, [but] many in the creative industries interpret Hayden’s move — made six weeks after she took office — as proof of her anti-copyright bias. They say Hayden’s library background aligns her with Google, which owns YouTube, the source of many claims of copyright infringement."
"[Hayden] has a long track record of being an activist librarian who is anti-copyright and a librarian who worked at places funded by Google," says Don Henley of The Eagles:
"There's a mind-set that the digital giants have fostered that everything on the Internet should be free…When they say they want free and open access, that's code for 'We want free content.'"
As we've seen in the past, the anti-copyright lobby has the resources to gin up an "astroturf" response to such "surveys." They can then use that "response" to go to Congress to present their case for free content as "the will of the people."
To counter this lobbying tactic, creators must respond in force with a call to retain the full protections of copyright as articulated in Article I Section 8 of the Constitution.
Please take the time to go to the Library of Congress survey website and respond to Dr. Hayden's three questions.
1. What are the knowledge, skills, and abilities you believe are the most important for the Register of Copyrights?
2. What should be the top three priorities for the Register of Copyrights?
3. Are there other factors that should be considered?
We will provide some sample answers tomorrow.
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