The administration’s annual report reveals US’s intention to change its anti-piracy plan. The Obama Administration advises for more transparency when it comes to protecting Intellectual Property and international agreements, while emphasizing on the importance of how IP enforcement communicates with IP stakeholders.

This year’s report offers a perspective on how the administration handled the IP front, while listing statistics about how ICE and the US Justice Department have been handling copyright infringement thus far. Also, it underlines the fact that, although both Hollywood studios and internet service providers have come up with voluntary schemes to curb piracy, there’s a need to test the cogency of these designs.

As far as transparency is concerned, the Obama Administration implies that an advisory group should be put together, while keeping an “open door policy”, by making the group publish its plans via Federal Register notices and other notification methods.

There’s also the issue of how IP laws are enforced. To that, the report highlights the need of a federal law capable of keeping right-holders satisfied on a regular basis. Since 2009, the report continues, the US Attorney’s Office had filed 178 IP cases targeting 254 defendants. On the other hand, ICE and Homeland Security started 1.251 IP investigations, arresting 691 infringers in the process.

Last but not least, the report addresses the issue of “fair use”.

“…the Administration believes, and the U.S. Copyright Office agrees, that authors (including visual artists, songwriters, filmmakers, and writers) would benefit from more guidance on the fair use doctrine,” the report notes.

Also, the Copyright Office’s intention is to publish “major fair use decisions, including a summary of the holdings and some general questions and observations that may in turn guide those seeking to apply the decisions to their own situations.”