§170 — Title 2 The Congress | U.S. Code

Summary

Creates and keeps a special collection in the Library of Congress called the American Television and Radio Archives. The goal is to save TV and radio programs important to U.S. culture and let historians and scholars study them without encouraging copyright violations. Librarian = Librarian of Congress. Archives = American Television and Radio Archives. After talking with interested groups, the Librarian must decide what copies and phonorecords to add. The Archives can include programs obtained under sections 407 and 408 of title 17, transfers from the Library’s own collections, gifts or exchanges, or purchases from owners. The Librarian must keep catalogs and let researchers use the material under set rules. For regularly scheduled newscasts or on-the-spot news coverage, the Librarian may make copies, create unedited subject compilations, and lend or deposit them with libraries that meet section 108(a) of title 17. The Librarian and staff are not liable for others’ copyright infringement unless they knowingly took part. The act is called the American Television and Radio Archives Act.

Title 2, §170

The Congress — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)The Librarian of Congress (hereinafter referred to as the “Librarian”) shall establish and maintain in the Library of Congress a library to be known as the American Television and Radio Archives (hereinafter referred to as the “Archives”). The purpose of the Archives shall be to preserve a permanent record of the television and radio programs which are the heritage of the people of the United States and to provide access to such programs to historians and scholars without encouraging or causing copyright infringement.

(1)The Librarian, after consultation with interested organizations and individuals, shall determine and place in the Archives such copies and phonorecords of television and radio programs transmitted to the public in the United States and in other countries which are of present or potential public or cultural interest, historical significance, cognitive value, or otherwise worthy of preservation, including copies and phonorecords of published and unpublished transmission programs—

(A)acquired in accordance with section 407 and 408 of title 17; and

(B)transferred from the existing collections of the Library of Congress; and

(C)given to or exchanged with the Archives by other libraries, archives, organizations, and individuals; and

(D)purchased from the owner thereof.

(2)The Librarian shall maintain and publish appropriate catalogs and indexes of the collections of the Archives, and shall make such collections available for study and research under the conditions prescribed under this section.

(b)Notwithstanding the provisions of section 106 of title 17, the Librarian is authorized with respect to a transmission program which consists of a regularly scheduled newscast or on-the-spot coverage of news events and, under standards and conditions that the Librarian shall prescribe by regulation—

(1)to reproduce a fixation of such a program, in the same or another tangible form, for the purposes of preservation or security or for distribution under the conditions of clause (3) of this subsection; and

(2)to compile, without abridgment or any other editing, portions of such fixations according to subject matter, and to reproduce such compilations for the purpose of clause (1) of this subsection; and

(3)to distribute a reproduction made under clause (1) or (2) of this subsection—

(A)by loan to a person engaged in research; and

(B)for deposit in a library or archives which meets the requirements of section 108(a) of title 17,

(c)The Librarian or any employee of the Library who is acting under the authority of this section shall not be liable in any action for copyright infringement committed by any other person unless the Librarian or such employee knowingly participated in the act of infringement committed by such person. Nothing in this section shall be construed to excuse or limit liability under title 17 for any act not authorized by that title or this section, or for any act performed by a person not authorized to act under that title or this section.

(d)This section may be cited as the “American Television and Radio Archives Act”.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date

Section effective Jan. 1, 1978, see section 102 of Pub. L. 94–553, set out as a note preceding section 101 of Title 17, Copyrights.

§170 American Television and Radio Archives

Summary

Title 2, §170

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date

Citations & Metadata