What Happened?
Washington, DC-based United States Copyright Office has Promoted Douglas Ament as Chief Information Officer
About the Company
The United States Copyright Office, and the position of Register of Copyrights, were created by Congress in 1897. The Register directs the Copyright Office as a separate federal department within the Library of Congress, under the general oversight of the Librarian, pursuant to specific statutory authorities set forth in the United States Copyright Act. Earlier in the Nation`s history, from 1870-1896, the Librarian of Congress administered copyright registration (at that time mostly books) directly, and earlier still, from 1790-1896, U.S. district courts were responsible for doing so. Today, the Copyright Office is responsible for administering a complex and dynamic set of laws, which include registration, the recordation of title and licenses, a number of statutory licensing provisions, and other aspects of the 1976 Copyright Act and the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act. By statute, the Register of Copyrights is the principal advisor to Congress on national and international copyright matters, testifying upon request and providing ongoing leadership and impartial expertise on copyright law and policy. Congress relies upon, and directs, the Copyright Office to provide critical law and policy services, including domestic and international policy analysis, legislative support for Congress, litigation support, assistance to courts and executive branch agencies, participation on U.S. delegations to international meetings, and public information and education programs. The past few years have been particularly active, as Copyright Office lawyers assisted Congress with more than twenty copyright review hearings and prepared numerous timely reports, including for example, The Making Available Right in the United States, Copyright and the Music Marketplace, Software-Enabled Consumer Products, and Orphan Works and Mass Digitization. As of early 2017, the Copyright Office has approximately 400 employees, the majority of whom examine and register hundreds of thousands of copyright claims in books, journals, music, movies, sound recordings, software, photographs, and other works of original authorship each year. In fiscal year 2016, the Office processed over 468,000 claims for registration, issued over 414,000 registrations, received 91percent of claims via our online application system, and collected $30 million in fees from registration. The Office also acts as a conduit for the Library, providing certain works of authorship, known as copyright deposits, to the Library for its collections. In fiscal year 2016, the Office forwarded more than 636,000 works, worth a net value of $35.6 million, to the Library. During calendar year 2016, the Office collected over $244 million in royalty payments from compulsory and statutory licenses under sections 111, 119, and 1003. In recent years, the Office has taken steps, through a set of public discussions, to propose ways to modernize the Copyright Office by examining relationships between the law, regulations, registration practices, technology, access to data, and the evolving copyright marketplace. Finally, the Copyright Office works regularly with the Department of Justice, the Department of State, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the Department of Commerce, including the Patent and Trademark Office, and the Office of the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator.
About the Person
Douglas Ament will serve as the Register’s top advisor on information technology initiatives and will be principally responsible for developing technology strategies related to upgrading and recalibrating Copyright Office services over the next several years. Among Ament’s duties will be managing and improving the Copyright Office IT enterprise, including strategic planning efforts, digital security initiatives, policy development, and operational and maintenance activities, as well as all research and development of new technologies that support the business processes and mission of the Copyright Office. Ament assumes the position after serving as the Director of Information Technology for the Copyright Office since April 2009 and Chief of the Copyright Technology Office since July 2008. He led a major technical upgrade analysis for the Copyright Office as part of the Register’s 2011-2013 special projects, in which stakeholders from across the copyright spectrum offered recommendations and information about possible future strategies. Prior to joining the Copyright Office, he served in the Library of Congress Information Technology Services directorate, and before that as a federal IT consultant for more than 20 years supporting clients, including the U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Postal Service Headquarters, and the U.S. Navy. Ament holds a Bachelor of Science degree in management from Nyack College and Seminary in Nyack, New York. He also earned Project Management Professional (PMP) certification from the Project Management Institute and completed graduate studies in Project Management at George Washington University and in Management Information Systems at the University of Maryland.
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