July 22, 1996

Contact: Craig D'Ooge (202) 707-9189

---

Copyright Office Hires Policy Planning Advisor

Maria Pallante and Jesse M. Feder have been appointed Policy Planning Advisors to the Office of the Register of Copyright in the area of policy and international affairs. Maria Pallante is a lawyer who comes to the Copyright Office from the law firm of Lichtman, Trister, Singer & Ross in Washington, D.C., where she counseled a wide range of clients, including authors, visual and recording artists, publishers, film producers, unions, trade associations and not-for-profit organizations, on domestic and international copyright issues. Among her specialties are electronic publishing and Internet matters as well as collective administration of rights.

Before going into private practice, Ms. Pallante spent four years representing authors' groups in New York City, first as Staff Counsel and Assistant Director to the Authors Guild and then as Executive Director of the National Writers Union. Her work included formulating and promoting the union's positions on copyright policy, preparing amicus curiae briefs, and testifying before Congress and the Working Group on Intellectual Property Rights of the Clinton administration's Information Infrastructure Task Force. While there, she negotiated a ground-breaking royalty collection agreement, which allows journalists to be paid for electronic distribution.

Ms. Pallante earned her B.A. in history from College Misericordia in 1986 and her J.D. degree in 1990 from George Washington University Law School. She is a member of the New York and New Jersey bars. She serves on the Executive Committee of the U.S. Chapter of the Association Litteraire et Artistique Internationale, the Board of Directors of Art Education for the Blind and the Executive Committee of the New York State Bar Association's Committee on Entertainment, Arts & Sports Law.

She began work in the Copyright Office in late June.

Jesse M. Feder is a lawyer who has been in practice for the last nine years. Most recently he was an associate with the Intellectual Property Practice Group at Schwab, Goldberg, Price & Dannay in New York, where he specialized in issues relating to copyright protection of computer programs and electronic databases, and intellectual property protection in international arenas. He was the principal author of amicus curiae briefs in several important copyright cases in the Supreme Court and the U.S. Courts of Appeals, including Lotus v. Borland. His work included preparing testimony and briefing papers for legislative and policy-making activities relating to software copyright protection in the United States, Europe, Asia and Australia.

Mr. Feder earned his B.A. in history from Yale University in 1984. He received his J.D. in 1987 from Columbia University School of Law, where he was managing editor of the law review. He is a member of the New York and Connecticut bars. He has published several articles on copyright and technology. Mr. Feder is a member of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York's Computer Law Committee and the American Bar Association's Section on Intellectual Property Law, Committees 701 and 302, and Section on Science and Technology.

He begins his position with the Copyright Office on August5.

# # #

PR 96-108
7/22/96
ISSN 0731-3527