The recent demotion of US Register of Copyrights Maria Pallante has been controversial, and it was unsurprising that some artists’ rights campaigners claimed Google was somehow involved in the move. More surprising, but undoubtedly welcome to the latter groups, is the support of the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board. In an opinion piece published this week, the WSJ backed their theories. “You don’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to notice that an abrupt change of leadership at the U.S. Copyright Office is good news for Google, which aims to pay less for profiting from the property of others,” claimed the article. “There is some circumstantial evidence that Google’s lobbying influence was brought to bear in removing Ms. Pallante, though both Google and Ms. Pallante declined to talk to us.” The Journal suggests that the US Congress should “take a look” if Pallante’s successor has worked for Google in the past.
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