A Look Back at World IP Day Celebrated on April 26!
The Copyright Alliance was honored to join the U.S. Copyright Office in celebrating World Intellectual Property Day on April 26, 2016 in Washington, DC.
The program, which was hosted by the Register of Copyrights Maria Pallante, featured remarks from Congressman Bob Goodlatte, chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary; and Keith Kupferschmid, chief executive officer of the Copyright Alliance.
As noted by Chairman Goodlatte, “Any potential changes to copyright law cannot be based upon mere talking points of interested parties. Copyright law, much like all of the other Titles of the U.S. Code, are about the details. Words matter, not bullet points.”
The program celebrated creativity across our interconnected digital world. It also highlighted established creators who have mastered their crafts and who have created innovative revenue streams to pay fellow creators fairly. The panelists shared their thoughts about the value of copyright law in our digital world and provided suggestions on “what’s next.”
Panelists included Jared Geller of HITRECORD, Anna Metcalfe of Gather, and Chase Jarvis of Creative Live.
HITRECORD is a community for creators to collaborate, remix, and get paid for their work. “We want to work with artists around the world […] and ensure that they get paid. Being paid for creative work is important and attribution is almost as important, sometimes more,” Jared Geller noted during his presentation. He also introduced a video from Joseph Gordon-Levitt, founder and director of HITRECORD, discussing the importance of intellectual property. “The principal of getting paid “feels validating” to artists and creators “and they deserve to feel validated,” Jared added.
“Just the fact that World IP Day exists and people are learning more about what that means, and educating artists on the value of their contribution, is a huge step forward. It’s a challenging time but it’s also inspiring and very exciting to be part of. (It’s about) understanding what the value of our ideas is and what we can do about it,” Jared concluded.
Gather allows couples to create wedding registries featuring work from individual artists and creators. During her presentation, Anna Metcalfe talked about encouraging entrepreneurship through her company. “There is this interesting tension between collaboration and having an individual voice, and (I believe) the future will present a solution to this tension where human beings will get together to push our culture forward and acknowledge all the individual voices that come with that. This is the most amazing thing I can think of,” Anna noted.
On creativity today, “We are all hyphens” said Chase Jarvis during his presentation. “The idea behind Creative Live is that we are all creative and the challenge is unlocking that. Creativity today is different, faster; and we need laws and a mentality that reflects that. We can’t have a culture that values creativity, but a system that doesn’t foster it,” noted Chase.
Chase summed up his panel presentation by stating “Let’s make World IP Day easy to understand, acknowledging that there is value in our creators; let’s create access to information because information is what actually helps to tie it all together.”
Key points from remarks by Keith Kupferschmid, Copyright Alliance CEO, included:
“Like Game of Thrones, creators vs technology is a compelling narrative, but it has little or no basis in reality. The creative community is a partner and collaborator with the technology community.” Adding a point about the U.S. Copyright Office small claims process, Keith Kupferschmid said that “It’s an unfortunate truth that today’s small creators, especially for visual and literary artists, have rights but no remedies.”
He further added that “While the Copyright Alliance encourages the development of new technologies to bring licensed works to the public in new and innovative ways, we are gravely concerned that the FCC’s (AllVid) proposal will permanently and significantly harm these creative professionals.”
“The U.S. Copyright Office must be able to rapidly adapt to ensure it can offer the tools and resources that all users and staff of the Office demand. The best way to ensure that is for the USCO to have control over its IT systems, its budget and its staffing,” concluded Kupferschmid.”
Photo Credit: Polar-lights/iStock/thinkstock
Photo Edited by: Copyright Alliance