PlainBillCongress, translated.Legislation. Context. Public interest.Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. (Sponsor introductory remarks on measure: CR S12-13; text of measure as introduced: CR S13)
Congressional Research Service
Version 00 · Introduced in Senate · Jan 6, 2015
Copyright and Marriage Equality Act
Amends federal copyright law to revise the definition of "widow" or "widower" for purposes of provisions concerning the transfer of a copyright to an author's spouse or other next of kin following the author's death. Declares that an individual is the widow or widower of an author if the courts of the state in which the individual and the author were married (or, if the individual and the author were not married in any state but were validly married in another jurisdiction, the courts of any state) would find that the individual and the author were validly married at the time of the author's death. (Currently, only the author's surviving spouse under the law of the author's domicile at the time of death is considered a widow.)
People & committees
Sen. Leahy, Patrick J. [D-VT] · D–VT
Legislative record
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Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. (Sponsor introductory remarks on measure: CR S12-13; text of measure as introduced: CR S13)
Introduced in Senate
Primary sources
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Source last updated: Aug 10, 2026. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
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