Copyright in Congress: 2025 Year in Review
In 2025, the 119th Congress began a new session, reintroducing copyright bills from prior Congresses in addition to introducing completely new pieces of copyright-related legislation. Most Congressional activities in 2025 were focused on two main issues: (1) AI and copyright and (2) judicial site blocking measures against commercial piracy websites. This blog summarizes some of the bills introduced and some notable hearings from 2025, and what issues Congress will likely focus on in 2026.
Copyright Legislation Introduced in 2025
FADPA and Judicial Site Blocking Measures Against Commercial Piracy Websites: In the beginning of 2025, Congress focused on site blocking measures that would enable copyright owners to petition courts for orders that would require online service providers to block user access to large-scale, foreign websites that stream or otherwise provide access to pirated copyrighted works. Currently, the U.S. lacks such measures, even though they’ve been successfully implemented in over fifty countries around the world. Judicial site blocking efforts kicked off in January when Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) introduced H.R.791, the Foreign Anti- Digital Piracy Act (FADPA), which would introduce new language in Chapter 5 of the Copyright Act to permit copyright owners to petition a U.S. federal district court for a no-fault injunctive order to require service providers to block access to infringing foreign websites or online services. Following introduction of the bill, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, Artificial Intelligence, and the Internet, held roundtables during the year to discuss key issues and gather feedback from various stakeholders.
The Senate was also engaged in judicial site blocking efforts in 2025. In July, Senators Thom Tillis (R-NC), Chris Coons (D-DE), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), and Adam Schiff (D-CA) released a draft bill titled the Block Bad Electronic Art and Recording Distributors (Block BEARD) Act of 2025, which, similar to FADPA, would enable copyright owners to seek U.S. federal court action to block dedicated foreign online piracy operations from making pirated versions of their works available to U.S. users.
American Music Fairness Act (AMFA): In January, Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Thom Tillis (R-NC), and Cory Booker (D-NJ) reintroduced S.326, the American Music Fairness Act (AMFA), which would create a public performance right for non-subscription terrestrial radio broadcast transmissions, subject to numerous exceptions. That same day, Representatives Darrell Issa (R- CA), Jerry Nadler (D-NY), Mark Green (R-TN), Jon McClintock (R-CA), and Ted Lieu (D-CA) reintroduced a companion bill, H.R.861.
ART Act: In June, Representatives Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and Judy Chu (D-CA) introduced H.R. 4017, the American Royalties Too Act of 2025 (ART Act). The bill would amend Title 17 of the United States Code to enable visual artists to receive resale royalties in certain circumstances— ensuring they are compensated when their work is resold commercially. Some key provisions include: (i) a 5% royalty (up to $50,000) on resales of original works of visual art priced at $5,000 or more; (ii) transparent collection and distribution of royalties through authorized visual artists’ collecting societies; (iii) protections for heirs and successors to maintain royalty rights; (iv) enforcement measures, including legal remedies for unpaid royalties; (v) programs to support U.S. artists through unclaimed royalties.
Pro Codes Act: Also, in June, Representatives Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Deborah Ross (D-NC) reintroduced the bipartisan Protecting and Enhancing Public Access to Codes Act (Pro Codes Act), H.R.4072. The bill aims to preserve copyright protections for standards developers while ensuring public access to federal rules and standards that are incorporated by reference into law. The legislation allows for a tiered access model—free public access to core content alongside premium paid versions with added features.
TRAIN Act: In July, Senator Peter Welch (D-VT) re-introduced S. 2455, the Transparency and Responsibility for Artificial Intelligence Networks Act (the TRAIN Act), along with Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Josh Hawley (R-MO), and Adam Schiff (D-CA). The TRAIN Act provides an administrative subpoena process to assist copyright owners in determining which of their copyrighted works have been used in the training of AI models. Though transparency measures around AI development have been a part of other legislative efforts, the TRAIN Act was a welcomed federal-level effort at addressing the appalling lack of transparency over the copyright-protected works that AI companies have scraped and used without permission to train their commercial AI models.
Legislative Branch Agencies Clarification Act: In November, Representative Morgan Griffith (R-VA) introduced H.R. 6028, the Legislative Branch Agencies Clarification Act, a bill to revise the appointment and removal process for several legislative branch officers. The bill would remove the Library of Congress’ supervisory authority over the Copyright Office, make the Register of Copyrights a presidential appointee subject to Senate confirmation, and establish a 10-year term, with reappointments permitted in five-year increments. It would also require the chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees to jointly recommend three candidates for the President’s consideration.
VACRA: In December, Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Peter Welch (D-VT) introduced S.3517, The Visual Artists Copyright Reform Act of 2025 (VACRA) that would: (i) amend the Copyright Act to exempt pictorial, graphic, and sculptural (PGS) works from the Section 407 best edition deposit requirement and allow for the deposit of one digital copy for pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works to satisfy the Section 408(b) registration requirement; (ii) allow for third-party entities to create registries of photographs which may be certified by the U.S. Copyright Office (USCO) and clarify that a photograph that is submitted to the registry would also satisfy the Section 408(b) deposit copy requirement; (iii) create a group registration of photographs option at “quantity tiers” that would permit up to 3,000 photographs to be registered at once without regard to publication status, publication date, or date of creation; (iv) create a deferred registration examination system for PGS works and direct the USCO to implement a “contemporary public-facing interface” to facilitate the transfer of metadata of copyrighted works to populate a copyright registration form; and (v) direct the USCO to implement regulations for small business entity fees and a subscription model for registrations of pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works.
TRUMP AMERICA AI Act Framework: In December, Senator Blackburn (R-TN) announced her intent to introduce legislation in 2026, which would codify President Trump’s executive order for unified federal AI legislation, introducing a legislative framework titled The Republic Unifying Meritocratic Performance Advancing Machine intelligence by Eliminating Regulatory Interstate Chaos Across American Industry (TRUMP AMERICA AI Act). Though not a formal bill, the legislative framework represents a Congressional commitment to addressing the copyright issues that creators and copyright owners face in the development of generative AI technologies. Senator Blackburn’s framework directly addresses copyright, digital replicas, derivative works, and other intellectual property in sections 18-21 of the document. Sections that address copyright issues include that a legislative framework would create a federal right for individuals to sue companies for using their data, including copyrighted works, for AI training without explicit consent, deem derivative works generated, synthesized, or produced by an AI system without authorization ineligible for copyright protections, place obligations on AI developers, operators, and distributors to publish a Training Data Use Record and an Inference Data Use Record, and establishes “a limited, conditional safe harbor permitting copyright owners to collectively license works for specified AI uses” while also protecting copyright owners’ rights to license individually. The White House recently announced that it intends to present a legislative proposal for a federal AI framework in the new year, meaning that we may likely see big movements in 2026 on Senator Blackburn’s proposal and other Congressional efforts on addressing AI issues at the federal level.
Congressional Hearings Held in 2025
AI and Criminal Copyright Infringement: In July, the Senate Judiciary Committee’s (SJC) Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism held a hearing titled Too Big to Prosecute?: Examining the AI Industry’s Mass Ingestion of Copyrighted Works for AI Training. The hearing shed much needed light on how artificial intelligence (AI) companies are mass ingesting copyrighted material, often obtaining it from pirated sources, to train large language models (LLMs), and whether such practices fall under the legal defense of fair use or amount to criminal copyright infringement. Members of Congress from both sides of the agreed that there was a need to protect creators from AI companies’ unlicensed use of copyrighted works. Chairman Josh Hawley (R-MO) delivered the bottom line at the hearing, stating: “We have got to do something to protect the people of this country. I’m all for innovation, but not at the price of illegality. I’m all for innovation, but not at the price of destroying the intellectual property of the average man and woman in this country. We have laws for a reason—those laws ought to be enforced. Big Tech should not be above the law. Enough is enough. It is time to enforce the law.” A recap of highlights and takeaways from the hearing can be found in this blog post.
AI Moratorium: In September, the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, Artificial Intelligence, and the Internet held a hearing titled AI at a Crossroads: A Nationwide Strategy or Californication? to examine the federal government’s role in regulating AI and the balance between federal and state authority. Bipartisan concern emerged around copyright issues where Representatives from both sides of the aisle raised concerns over copyright infringement in the context of generative AI and noted that federal frameworks like copyright laws should be upheld and respected.
Terrestrial Broadcast Performance Royalties: In December, the Senate Judiciary Committee’s IP Subcommittee held a hearing titled Balancing the Interests of Local Radio, Songwriters, and Performers in the Digital Age, focusing on the need for a public performance right for non-subscription terrestrial radio broadcast transmissions and the American Music Fairness Act (AMFA). Overall, the hearing was bipartisan, with every senator in attendance expressing strong support for AMFA. Witnesses, including KISS frontman, Gene Simmons, offered a multitude of views, where some witnesses stressed the urgent need to modernize copyright law to ensure fair compensation for performers. Chairman Thom Tillis (R-NC) closed the hearing by highlighting the growing consensus on Capitol Hill that action on this issue is forthcoming.
What to Expect from Congress in 2026
Congress will likely continue focusing on site blocking and other much-needed anti-piracy measures in 2026, in addition to continued pushes for clarifications surrounding copyright protection for model codes (like the Pro Codes Act), copyright registration reform (like VACRA), and terrestrial broadcast rights for sound recordings (like AMFA). More discussions on legislation addressing the organization of the U.S. Copyright Office are also very likely in 2026, as are transparency bills and potentially other AI-related efforts.
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