Senators Wyden And Paul Put A Hold On Dangerous CASE Act; Will Propose Alternative

Last week we noted that the House (overwhelmingly) voted in favor of the CASE Act, which is presented as a "small claims court" for copyright issues, but which has significant Constitutional issues, and would almost certainly lead to an uptick in copyright trolling activity. As we noted, the bill still needed to go to the Senate, and it appears that this is (at least for now) being blocked by Senators Ron Wyden and Rand Paul who have put a hold on the bill, and will introduce an alternative approach.

Sen. Ron Wyden... is crafting alternative legislation to a bill that overwhelmingly passed the House and would create a voluntary small claims board within the Copyright Office... a Wyden aide told us. He and frequent partner here Sen. Rand Paul... recently placed holds on the Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement (Case) Act... according to aides.

Wyden notes that the concept of enabling more access to copyright holders to an enforcement/remedy makes sense, but he has problems with the nature of the CASE Act:

Wyden says he agrees small copyright owners "are less likely" to reap the full benefits of the copyright system than major corporations like Disney or Sony. But he said the bill would "create an extrajudicial, virtually unappealable tribunal that could impose statutory damages of $30,000 on an individual who posts a couple of memes on social media, even if the claimant sustained little or no economic harm." The threat of litigation could stifle fair copyright use and free expression and enable copyright troll harassment, he said.

From that, it sounds like Wyden is working on some sort of compromise version that deals with the problems (including the fact that it's probably unconstitutional) and seeking a better approach for setting up a form of a small claims court for copyright violations. He did this last year with the Music Modernization Act as well, taking a really, really bad bill, and turning it into something that was actually okay (not great, mind you, but was a general improvement -- and one that got more or less everyone on board). Hopefully this new bill will do the same.

Unfortunately, it looks like those who have already decided the unconstitutional pro-copyright trolling version is the approach to take don't really want to deal with Wyden and Paul seeking a better approach:

Bill sponsor Sen. John Kennedy... told us of "two headaches" in the Senate Thursday. "We're working on it. I'm going to make them an offer they can't refuse," he said, declining to name names.

Hey, Senator John Kennedy, did you license that quote from whoever holds the copyright on The Godfather? Or are you ready to pay up to $30,000 for it?

Either way, that quote is fucked up. Wyden and Paul are seeking to make sure the bill is (1) Constitutional and (2) won't destroy lives. And Senator Kennedy thinks that's deserving of a Godfather-style threat? What is wrong with him?