The Copyright Alliance Honors Senator Marsha Blackburn
On September 23, 2026, the Copyright Alliance presented Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) with an award to thank her for her decades of ongoing support of creators and the copyright industry. This blog includes the remarks shared by Copyright Alliance CEO Keith Kupferschmid when presenting Senator Blackburn with her award.
Senator Blackburn’s Many Contributions
We are here to recognize a true leader and champion for the creator community and the copyright laws that protect them, Senator Marsha Blackburn.
Senator Blackburn’s distinguished career in public service is a testament to her unwavering dedication to creators and the issues and legislation that impact their ability to make a living from their works.
Her commitment to the creative community isn’t a recent occurrence. Instead, it goes back decades.
Her Tennessee Creative Advocacy
In 1995, Senator Blackburn began her public service career in the entertainment industry as executive director of the Tennessee Film, Entertainment, and Music Commission. This role put her at the intersection of government policy and Tennessee’s creative economy.
She later served in the Tennessee State Senate before being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2002, where she represented Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District for 16 years.
As a member of the House of Representatives, Senator Blackburn established the bipartisan Congressional Songwriters Caucus and became a leading voice for the music community.
Senator Blackburn in the U.S. Senate
In 2018, Tennesseans elected her to the U.S. Senate, making her the first woman to represent the state in the Senate.
As Chairman of the SJC Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law, and as a member of the SJC Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Senator Blackburn is at the center of some of the most important conversations that creators are facing today.
Throughout her illustrious career, Senator Blackburn has understood something that’s particularly important to all of us in this room: Tennessee’s creative economy is powered by the talent, ingenuity, and hard work of its creators. And those creators are in turn empowered by America’s copyright laws.
From Nashville’s songwriters and musicians, to artists, filmmakers, photographers, authors, and other creators across the country, Senator Blackburn has consistently worked to make certain that creative professionals have the rights and protections they need to succeed.
Legislation Supported by Senator Blackburn
Just about every important copyright bill to pass in the past two decades has Senator Blackburn’s fingerprints all over it.
She successfully fought for passage of the Music Modernization Act (MMA), landmark legislation that modernized music licensing and created a more efficient and transparent system for compensating songwriters, composers, and music publishers in the digital age.
Senator Blackburn has also repeatedly stood up for the principle that creators should be able to control and benefit from their own work.
In 2019, she joined the bipartisan CASE Act, legislation that ultimately established the Copyright Claims Board (CCB) and gave individual creators a more accessible and affordable way to enforce their copyrights without having to pursue expensive federal litigation.
At the time, Senator Blackburn emphasized that independent musicians and artists needed simple, quick, and affordable ways to address infringement.
A Career of Ongoing Creator Support
She has continued that advocacy throughout her Senate career, including introducing the Ask Musicians for Music Act (AM-FM Act) and later the American Music Fairness Act (or AMFA)—bills that would ensure that musicians and sound recording owners receive fair compensation when their recordings are played on terrestrial radio by requiring terrestrial radio stations to pay performance royalties to recording artists and musicians.
It was not just musicians and sound recording owners that she championed. She also supported many other creators. That is evident in her support for the Visual Artists Copyright Reform Act (VACRA), a bill that would reform copyright registration for visual artists, like photographers, and the Protect Lawful Streaming Act (PLSA), a bill that was passed into law that enabled criminal enforcement action against commercial, large-scale streaming of copyrighted material.
Fighting to Protect Creator Rights Against Unlicensed AI Training
Today, Senator Blackburn’s commitment to creators and copyright law is more evident than ever in her leadership on issues related to artificial intelligence.
She has been a strong advocate for ensuring that AI does not come at the expense of the people whose creativity makes AI valuable in the first place.
In 2025, Senator Blackburn co-led the bipartisan TRAIN Act, legislation to give musicians, artists, writers, and other copyright holders a way to access information about whether their works were used to train generative AI models without permission.
The legislation reflects a fundamental principle: creators deserve to know how their work is being used and should have meaningful tools to protect their rights.
And of course, significantly, Senator Blackburn has also been a leading voice behind the bipartisan NO FAKES Act, which seeks to protect individuals and creators from the unauthorized use of their voices and visual likenesses through AI-generated digital replicas.
Understanding Copyright, Technology, and Creator Rights
These efforts demonstrate that Senator Blackburn understands that copyright and related rights must continue to evolve as technology changes, but that innovation should never mean abandoning the creators whose work fuels our culture and economy.
Senator Blackburn’s record speaks for itself. She has consistently fought for a creative community that deserves to be recognized, respected and fairly compensated.
Her legacy is one of action, standing up for songwriters, musicians, artists, and creators and making sure that their voices are heard when important decisions are being made about their work and their livelihoods.
Celebrating Senator Blackburn for All Her Support
So today, we extend our deepest gratitude to Senator Blackburn for her longstanding support of the creator community and her tireless advocacy on its behalf.
Her work has made a meaningful difference for creators in Tennessee and across the country, and we are all better for it.
For these reasons, we are honored today to recognize Senator Marsha Blackburn with this award, which reads:
“Presented to U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn in recognition of your commitment to protecting copyright and empowering creators. 2026.”
Please join me in thanking Senator Blackburn for her many years of support for creators and copyright.
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