Copyright Alliance Issues Statement on Small Claims Legislation Introduced by Reps. Jeffries and Marino

PRESS RELEASE

Washington, D.C. Today, in response to the introduction of the Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement Act of 2017 (or the CASE Act of 2017) by Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and Rep. Tom Marino (R-PA), and Reps. Doug Collins (R-GA), Lamar Smith (R-TX), Judy Chu (D-CA), and Ted Lieu (D-CA), Copyright Alliance CEO Keith Kupferschmid released the following statement:

“The Copyright Alliance commends Rep. Jeffries and Rep. Marino, as well as Reps. Collins, Smith, Chu and Lieu, for introducing the Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement Act of 2017, a bill to help America’s individual creators and small businesses enforce their copyrights. It’s an unfortunate reality that the high cost of litigation makes copyright enforcement beyond the reach of most professional creators and small businesses that rely on copyright for their careers and livelihoods. As a result, these creators are left with rights but no remedies. So we are very appreciative of the efforts by Reps. Jeffries, Marino, Collins, Smith, Chu and Lieu, whose legislation would create a Copyright Claims Board to provide creators with a simple and less-expensive forum to enforce their copyrights. We urge the House Judiciary Committee to promptly consider the bill and look forward to working with all relevant stakeholders on this critical, bipartisan initiative.”

A link to the bill can be found here.

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ABOUT THE COPYRIGHT ALLIANCE

The Copyright Alliance is a non-profit, non-partisan public interest and educational organization representing the copyright interests of over 1.8 million individual creators and over 13,000 organizations in the United States, across the spectrum of copyright disciplines. The Copyright Alliance is dedicated to advocating policies that promote and preserve the value of copyright, and to protecting the rights of creators and innovators. For more information, please visit www.copyrightalliance.org.

For media inquiries, contact:

Eileen Bramlet

VP Communications

ebramlet@copyrightalliance.org

571.228.1906

You can download the pdf version of this statement here.