Organization for Transformative Works News

The U.S. Congress awkwardly crammed some copyright provisions into a COVID-relief bill, including the creation of a “small claims” copyright tribunal that could absolutely bankrupt fans who get targeted, and provisions about “felony streaming.” OTW has actively opposed this “small claims” proposal, and when it passed, we thought that there was nothing more to be done.

But as of December 23rd, there has been movement -- President Trump has threatened to veto the COVID bill and, among other things, asked for all of the ancillary language in the act to be removed, including the "small claims" and "felony streaming" provisions.Time to contact your congresspeople and tell them to take copyright out of the COVID bill!

These are official sites where you can identify and contact your Senators and your representative in the House. The matter is urgent as this bill may become law within the next week. For fans outside the U.S., let your friends know about this issue.

Note: this is DIFFERENT from Senator Tillis’s copyright wish-list that we posted about yesterday. Senator Tillis is still doing his thing; it’s not a bill and—we hope—may never become one. We anticipate a long road ahead on that front.