I
113th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 5617
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
September 18, 2014
Mr. Kilmer (for himself, Mr. Capuano, Mr. Cicilline, Mr. Connolly, Ms. DelBene, Mr. Deutch, Ms. Esty, Ms. Hahn, Mr. Hanna, Ms. Lee of California, Ms. Lofgren, Mr. Lowenthal, Mr. McDermott, Mr. Moran, Mr. Murphy of Florida, Mr. Nadler, Mr. Polis, Mr. Rangel, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, Mr. Schiff, Mr. Takano, Ms. Velázquez, Mr. Blumenauer, Ms. Schwartz, Mr. Swalwell of California, Mr. Grijalva, Mr. Smith of Washington, Mr. Himes, Ms. Kuster, Mr. Peters of California, Ms. Meng, and Ms. Brownley of California) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To amend title 17, United States Code, with respect to the definition of widow
and widower
, and for other purposes.
Short title
This Act may be cited as the Copyright and Marriage Equality Act
.
Definition of widow and widower in title 17, United States Code
In general
Section 101 of title 17, United States Code, is amended by striking the definition of
and inserting the following:widow
or widower
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, whether or not the spouse has later remarried.
.
Effective date
The amendment made by subsection (a) shall apply with respect to the death of any author that occurs on or after the date of the enactment of this Act.