The following are some of the recent laws passed or proposed that deal with copyright in the United States:

Copyright Act of 1976 (Title 17): Federal legislation enacted by Congress to protect to rights of creators of “original works of authorship,” including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works. This protection is available to both published and unpublished works.

Digital Choice and Freedom Act of 2002: this proposed bill would ensure that consumers can copy CDs, DVDs and other digital works for personal
use.

Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act of 2002: this proposed bill would repeal key sections of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), in order to permit people to bypass copy-protection schemes for legitimate purposes, such as personal copies. Additionally, it would also require anyone selling copy-protected CDs to include a "prominent and plainly legible" notice that the discs include anti-piracy technology that could render them unreadable on some players.

Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998: this legislation implements two World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) treaties into U.S. Copyright Law: the WIPO Copyright Treaty and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty. The first major provision requires contracting parties to provide legal remedies against circumventing technological protection measures to gain unauthorized access to a copyrighted work. The second provision facilitates enforcement of the copyright owner's right to control access to his copyrighted work by prohibiting the manufacturing or making available technologies, products and services that are used to defeat technological measures controlling access.

Small Webcaster Amendments Acts of 2002: this amendment allows webcasters to pay a proportion of revenues or expenses, depending on which is the larger, to record companies and recording artists. The new scale of fees frees the webcasters from the flat, per-song royalty rates regime proposed by the Librarian of Congress, which many webcasters claimed would put them out of business. The rates and terms set are for the period of 1998 through 2004 for the use of sound recordings on small commercial Internet webcasting stations.

Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998: extends the period of copyright protection by another 20 years. The copyright protection period on individual works is now the life of the author plus seventy years, and from seventy-five years to ninety-five years in the case of works of corporate authorship and works first published before January 1, 1978.

Technology, Education and Copyright Harmonization Act (TEACH Act): Signed into law on November 2, 2002, this law specifies conditions under which accredited, nonprofit education institutions in the U.S. may use copyright protected materials for distance education purposes. The TEACH Act allows teachers and faculty to use copyrighted works in the "digital classroom" without prior permission from the copyright holder. However, this complex law details numerous responsibilities that must be met before educational institutions
(including their libraries) can benefit from the exemptions. The TEACH Web site from the American Library Association is a useful source to help understand the TEACH Act.

Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA): a contract law statute that would apply to computer software, multimedia products, computer data and databases, online information, and other such products. UCITA is considered to be a complex and controversial law because of its attempts to create a new legal framework for e-commerce transactions that involve "computer information".