2 U.S.C. § 170 — American Television and Radio Archives

(a) Establishment and maintenance in Library of Congress. The Librarian of Congress must establish and maintain, within the Library of Congress, a library called the American Television and Radio Archives. Its purpose is to preserve a permanent record of television and radio programs that are part of the United States' heritage, and to give historians and scholars access to them, without encouraging or causing copyright infringement. (1) After consulting interested organizations and individuals, the Librarian decides which copies and phonorecords of U.S. and foreign television and radio programs to place in the Archives. They must have present or potential public or cultural interest, historical significance, cognitive value, or otherwise be worth preserving, and may come from (A) copies acquired under sections 407 and 408 of title 17; (B) items transferred from the Library of Congress's existing collections; (C) items given to or exchanged with the Archives by other libraries, archives, organizations, and individuals; and (D) items purchased from their owner. (2) The Librarian must maintain and publish catalogs and indexes of the Archives' collections, and make those collections available for study and research under the conditions this section sets. (b) Reproduction, compilation, and distribution for research of regularly scheduled newscasts or on-the-spot coverage of news events. Even though section 106 of title 17 normally governs copying rights, the Librarian may, for a program that is a regularly scheduled newscast or on-the-spot coverage of news events, and under standards and conditions the Librarian sets by regulation, (1) reproduce a copy of the program, in the same or another format, for preservation, security, or distribution under clause (3); (2) compile portions of these copies by subject matter, without abridging or otherwise editing them, and reproduce those compilations for the same preservation or security purposes; and (3) distribute a copy made under (1) or (2) by (A) loaning it to a person doing research, or (B) depositing it with a library or archives that meets the requirements of section 108(a) of title 17 — in either case, for research use only, not for further reproduction or performance. (c) Liability for copyright infringement by Librarian or any employee of Librarian. The Librarian, or any Library employee acting under this section's authority, is not liable in a copyright infringement action for infringement committed by another person, unless the Librarian or employee knowingly took part in that person's infringing act. This section does not excuse or limit liability under title 17 for any act not authorized by title 17 or this section, or for any act by someone not authorized to act under either one. (d) Short title. This section may be cited as the "American Television and Radio Archives Act."