LOC Head Overreached in Removing Register of Copyrights Pallante, AEI Fellow Says
Former Register of Copyrights Maria Pallante's ouster last month is an example of “overreach” by Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, said Tom Sydnor, visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute's Center for Internet, Communications and Technology, in a blog post…
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Thursday. Hayden removed Pallante as register and appointed her Library of Congress adviser for digital strategy. Pallante then resigned (see 1610210061 and 1610250062). Stakeholders noted that Pallante's support for making the Copyright Office an independent agency was likely a major factor (see 1610240052). Sydnor criticized Public Knowledge Visiting Senior Fellow Annemarie Bridy for a Washington Post blog post in which she faulted stakeholders who speculated on Hayden's reasoning. Stakeholders must “refocus, soon, on identifying the qualities and attitudes that we want in a new register,” but it's faulty to not question Pallante's ouster given that the move “has no precedent,” Sydnor said: "Dr. Hayden's predecessors understood that Members of Congress and their staffs tend to be sophisticated enough to recognize the sometimes serious tensions between the copyright-related interests” of the LOC and CO. Even if Hayden was well intentioned, she “really should have done a better job of executing her historically unprecedented decision,” Sydnor said. “Outsiders need not speculate about motives in order to conclude that [Pallante] was removed under circumstances that should seem disturbing to reasonable outsiders.” Pallante's ouster was handled “awkwardly,” Sydnor said. To “ensure” that Hayden's search for a new register identifies a candidate “worthy of that title,” stakeholders “clearly need to learn more about Dr. Hayden's views and intentions,” Sydnor said. "Changes in leadership can be expected to bring changes down the org chart when there is, as there appears to have been in this case, deep disagreement over a fundamental issue concerning the structure and identity of the organization," Bridy said in an email. Pallante's endorsement of CO independent is "without historical precedent -- so far as I can tell," Bridy said. "To my mind, that helps to explain why there is no historical precedent for a Register's removal upon the appointment of a new Librarian of Congress." The LOC didn't comment.