Before the US Copyright Office: Response of the Library Copyright Alliance to Request for Comments on Sovereign Immunity

Abstract

The Library Copyright Alliance (“LCA”) welcomes the opportunity to provide comments in response to the Copyright Office’s notice of inquiry concerning sovereign immunity published in the Federal Register on June 3, 2020. Many of the libraries represented by LCA are run by state governments, including libraries at state colleges and universities, as well as state libraries. The Supreme Court’s decision in Allen v. Cooper confirmed twenty years of lower court decisions holding the Copyright Remedy Clarification Act to be unconstitutional.1 Even though state-run libraries have understood that they are immune from damages liability for copyright infringement, they have not exploited this immunity to run roughshod over copyright. Accordingly, at least with respect to libraries, there has not been the sort of constitutional harm required by Allen to abrogate sovereign immunity.