Copyright Alliance’s New Website is a One-Stop Shop for All Things Copyright

When I took on the role of CEO of the Copyright Alliance a year ago, one of my goals was to overhaul the Copyright Alliance website to modernize the site, to make it display better on smartphones, tablets and other devices, and to focus more on our individual creator members and members of the public who might have questions about copyright.

The Alliance team set out to address those and other challenges with the website, while creating a completely new destination for those interested in copyright. In revamping the site, our primary goal was to develop a one-stop-shop where anyone – individual creators, small and large businesses, users, libraries, students, government officials, CA members and members of the public – can come to find the information about copyright they’re searching for.

As a result, there is something for everyone on the site.

• Are you a creator looking for legal assistance? check out our Find a Copyright Attorney or Creator Assistance Directory pages.
• Are you a policymaker on Capitol Hill or a journalist who wants to find out what the Copyright Alliance’s views are on a particular copyright issue, like Copyright Office Modernization? That’s easy, just go to our Position Papers, Statements to Congress, Amicus Briefs, or Agency & Other Filings pages.
• Are you a library or potential licensee trying to track down a copyright owner or creator? We can try to help on our Find a Copyright Owner/Creator page.
• Are you a copyright attorney trying to find a recent court decision, amicus brief or complaint filed in the latest copyright infringement case everyone’s talking about? Go to our Copyright Cases page. Over the coming weeks and months, we will continue to add cases to this database. As new cases are filed and decided, we will add this information to our database. However, if you can’t find what you’re looking for, please let us know so we can promptly add it for you and other users.
• Are you a member of the public, user or a creator looking for some answers to your copyright questions? Then take a look at our Copyright Law Explained, FAQ, Videos or Copyright Courses pages.
• Are you a Copyright Alliance member who wants to obtain a copy of the latest copyright bill or government report or information about an upcoming congressional hearing? Check out our Government Reports, Copyright Legislation or Congressional Hearings pages.

Certainly, much of this information can be found across different sites throughout the web; but now instead of going to several sites to get your copyright questions answered you only have to go to one – the Copyright Alliance.

One thing you’ll notice on the site is that there are a few placeholders for programs we plan on adding in the near future, but were not ready for “prime time” when we launched the new site. The most significant of these new initiatives will eventually be found on our Creator Services page. Since its inception nine years ago, the Copyright Alliance has been a staunch advocate for creators’ rights and for a strong and effective copyright law. As we approach our ten-year anniversary in May 2017, we will be taking things to the next level by also providing our individual creator members with valuable copyright services, such as specific copyright educational materials, videos and courses geared to specific types of creators and assistance with copyright registration and online enforcement.

The part of the site that I am most proud of is our home page, where we highlight the most important people to the copyright community – our individual creators. I have long believed that, we at the Copyright Alliance, need to do a better job of telling the stories of the copyright community – and the new website is the first step in that direction. The foundation of copyright is built on the creativity and ingenuity of individual creators – the wedding photographers, the singer-songwriters, the coders, the garage bands, the indie filmmakers, the composers, the authors and numerous others who make a living through their creativity. The new website is intended to be both a tribute to these creators as well as a reminder to anyone that visits the site who the beneficiaries of copyright are and to let them see the faces of the individuals who are victimized by online piracy.

A lot of hard work went into collecting and compiling all the information on the site and presenting it in a way that we hope is intuitive, user-friendly, orderly and useful. We know our work is not done. Rather, this is just the beginning of our efforts to provide our followers with the copyright information they want and need. We will continue to update and improve the site in the months ahead. If you have suggestions for how we might be able to do that, please let us know. I encourage you to check back in from time to time as we add more materials and videos.

I hope you enjoy the new site.