In 2020, Congress passed a law called the “Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement Act of 2020,” known as the “CASE Act.” The CASE Act mandated the formation of the Copyright Claims Board (CCB), a tribunal operating through the U.S. Copyright Office instead of the federal judicial branch, for the purpose of deciding “small claims” copyright infringement actions via a quicker, less expensive process — that is, without all of the procedural requirements of a normal federal court case. Damages are capped at $30,000 for CCB cases.
This page is for ASU faculty, staff, students, and scholars who might one day find themselves in receipt of a notice that a CCB action has been filed against them.
Please note that the U.S. Copyright Office is still creating the rules that implement this new law, so the information on this page will evolve.
The following categories of persons are potentially subject to CCB claims:
- Students (including graduate students if their employment is unrelated to the matter being complained of; e.g., a graduate student is employed in a laboratory but the CCB claim is about images the student included in a dissertation). This is true regardless of whether the university is public or private.
- Employees (e.g., faculty, lecturers, researchers, etc.) of public universities if the complained-of activities are beyond / outside of the scope of their employment (e.g., faculty member uploading copyrighted content to a personal website).
A claim filed against you in the CCB means that a purported copyright owner is asserting that you have infringed their copyright through something you have uploaded, reproduced, published, created, distributed, performed, or displayed.
The notice you receive signifies that the claimant has alleged copyright infringement, but the notice does not mean you have actually infringed or that the CCB will ultimately determine you have infringed.
Indeed, there are many reasons why your use of a copyrighted work may not be an infringement. For instance, there are key exceptions to copyright law that support teaching, scholarship, and research — most notably, fair use. These exceptions provide complete defenses to claims of infringement or, in some instances, permit a significant reduction of damages. Further, not everything is actually protected by copyright. Claimants may believe they hold copyright in materials that are not subject to copyright (e.g., because the materials reflect only facts or ideas) or are no longer protected by copyright (e.g., because the copyright in the materials has expired). Claimants may also believe that they hold copyright to materials for which copyright is actually held by a third party.