How A Strong Copyright System Benefits the United States
Resolved: The United States federal government should significantly strengthen its protection of domestic intellectual property rights in copyrights, patents, and/or trademarks.
Growing up in Michigan, high school policy debate let me engage with national and international policy issues and philosophical theories that wouldn’t have necessarily found me otherwise. Our school’s program was fairly modest, but our team punched above our weight, and I was privileged to lead our team to many successes, meeting students from all over.
My time in debate took place during the “Oregon Trail” generation, the last cohort to grow up in the analog world and the first to navigate high school with household computers. This was a transitional period where trusted information was rich and plentiful, but before the firehose of content at your fingertips. While I have fond memories of road trips to college libraries to access specialized research terminals, I am glad that digital distribution channels make it easier for students of all backgrounds to engage with texts and participate in debate.
On the other hand, policy debate presumes that reliable reporting and research has immense value – a large chunk of time in preparation and competition is spent separating the wheat from the chaff, thinking critically and puzzling together a policy framework. Quality research and writing is critical, and flimsy takes are easily dismissed. Debate gave me muscle memory to analyze texts as a lawyer, and a lifelong respect for the value of nonfiction writing.
How High School Debate Connects with My Career in Copyright Law
I am General Counsel at News/Media Alliance, a trade association for the news, magazine and digital media industry, where I advise on a full range of legal issues. Today, my legal work intersects with former debaters who have carved out paths in journalism, government, academia, legal practice, and entertainment and technology companies. Many are grappling with thorny questions of technology regulation in a rapidly emergent space, sometimes from quite opposite perspectives.
My Perspective on the National HS Debate Topic: Copyright Is the Engine of Free Expression and Supports a Free, Independent Press
Our intellectual property framework is a key driver of American innovation, creativity, and culture. Focusing on copyright, an economic report by the International Intellectual Property Alliance estimated that in 2021, core copyright industries added $1.8 trillion dollars of value to U.S. GDP, accounting for 7.76% of the U.S. economy. Operating within the larger international system, the United States’ flexible copyright system sustains a wide diversity of cultural production, from fine arts to Hollywood, from emerging music genres to the biggest acts, from theater to novels to computer software.
Copyright also plays a critical role in our knowledge production and expression. The American Constitution is unique in explicitly guaranteeing rights of free speech and a free press, and its Intellectual Property Clause is designed to coexist with and complement this vision. Journalism, research, and commentary all require investment and support to bear witness to breaking developments, inform policy making, expose corruption, and perform other essential work necessary for an informed citizenry. Publishers often fund research, pay salaries, provide security, cover travel, push for newsgathering access, and facilitate editing and fact checking processes that help instill reliability and trust. All that is before factoring in distribution costs to the public.
It is copyright that provides an established legal framework relied upon for the production of informational writing required by democratic societies. As the Supreme Court explained, “[i]n our haste to disseminate news, it should not be forgotten that the Framers intended copyright itself to be the engine of free expression. By establishing a marketable right to the use of one’s expression, copyright supplies the economic incentive to create and disseminate ideas.” And by creating a marketable right for authors, copyright established an alternative to patronage systems that can reduce the diversity of voices, chill speech, or even encourage propaganda. Meanwhile, our copyright statute lists news reporting as a purpose that may signal a fair use of a copyrighted work under our four-factor test, one way the U.S. system is designed to encourage productive uses of works, while guarding against parasitic exploitations.
As artificial intelligence systems permeate facets of our societal and economic lives, it is important that copyright protections and the overall operation of our copyright ecosystem remain fit for purpose. Maintaining economic incentives to produce and distribute human authored writings will be essential to combat mis- and disinformation in an age marked by vast amounts of content, often of lower quality. Decades into the digital age, there is a growing consensus that other legal frameworks have not adequately kept pace, and under-regulation has created risks in competition, child safety, privacy, and other fields. Copyright law is not perfect, but it is a proven and flexible framework to address many core, emerging issues around generative AI, and facilitate the continued production of authoritative and reliable reporting, research, and commentary. Along with trademark, which protects against tarnishment or misuse of brand identities, a strong copyright system is critical to help maintain vibrant traditions of speech and a free, independent press that underpin our democratic traditions and national discourse – including even, for policy debate.
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Regan Smith is SVP and general counsel of News/Media Alliance. She is a former General Counsel of the U.S. Copyright Office and a former Michigan high school policy debate state champion.
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