Lincoln Bandlow was featured in the Daily Journal article, "Lawyers Debate Copyright Law as Congress Evaluates Reform." Full text can be found in the November 19, 2015, issue, but a synopsis is below.
No major revisions have been made to the Copyright Act of 1976 since Congress passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in 1998, and attorneys believe copyright reform is long overdue.
Fox Rothschild's Lincoln Bandlow agreed the potential for "astronomical" damages needs to be reevaluated. "You can copy mass numbers of works, even unintentionally, [and] even though they're not tremendously valuable works the sheer number and the statutory damages multiplier makes these cases terrifying," he said.
Bandlow also believes that the attorney's fee provision which states the court may award a reasonable attorney's fee to the prevailing party as part of the costs needs revision.
"Defendants successfully defending against copyright claims tend to still be on the losing side of attorney's fees requests more often than they should," he said, suggesting that changing the wording from "may" award to "shall" award would help avoid impractical lawsuits.
Advances in technology occur faster than legislation can be introduced, which Bandlow compared to the fabled tortoise and hare. "Big, powerful interests aren't necessarily on the same page," he added.
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