A Copyright Alliance Thanksgiving 2022
It’s been over seven years now since I first took on the role as CEO of the Copyright Alliance. For most of those seven years, during the Thanksgiving season, I’ve taken a moment to look back at the events of the past year and highlighted the many Copyright Alliance-related initiatives and accomplishments that I am most thankful for. In the spirit of this Thanksgiving copyright tradition, I will once again share the things I most appreciate from 2022.
The things I’m thankful for this holiday season include:
- The knowledgeable, hardworking, dedicated, and passionate Copyright Alliance staff who diligently advocate for policies that promote and preserve the value of copyright and that protect the rights of creators and innovators. The staff at the Copyright Alliance has changed over the years but one thing that has not changed is that throughout each of my seven years here, I have been blessed to work with truly wonderful people who love what they do, who love working with one another, who love helping individuals and small businesses on the copyright issues of the day, and who truly believe in the mission of the Copyright Alliance. I would be remiss if I also didn’t take a moment to call out Eileen Bramlet who runs our communications and events team (and so much more), who has been at my side for virtually all of my seven years here (and many years prior) and has played a huge role in helping shape the Copyright Alliance into the organization we are today;
- The organization members of the Copyright Alliance. Although our members may disagree with one another once in a while, at the end of the day they are able to understand and appreciate the mission of the Copyright Alliance and the importance of strong and effective copyright protection. This understanding enables them to put aside any differences and make decisions on controversial and/or complex copyright issues that are in the best interest of the copyright and creator communities;
- The millions of creators across this great country whose interests the Copyright Alliance seeks to protect, and who like many others, continue to pick up the pieces of their lives and careers after the pandemic effectively dropped a bomb on their ability to make a living as creators. Despite having to deal with people who don’t always respect their valuable contributions, laws that do not always adequately or effectively protect them or their creativities, and the challenges presented by the pandemic and new technologies, like artificial intelligence, that use their works without payment or permission, these creators continue to epitomize the American dream by working tirelessly to create and disseminate new copyrighted works for the world to enjoy;
- Register Shira Perlmutter and the other leaders and staff at the U.S. Copyright Office, for understanding and promoting the importance of copyright to our culture, economy, and international trade; and for continuing to consider new ways to improve the copyright system and help the copyright community. In particular, I am thankful for the Copyright Office staff’s hard work and dedication in building the new Copyright Claims Board (CCB) out of whole cloth, their thoughtful consideration of our and others’ suggestions relating to the implementing regulations, and their continued patience with and assistance to the claimants filing cases with the CCB while we work feverishly to produce helpful CCB educational materials;
- The Copyright Alliance Legal and Academic Advisory Boards, for their dedication and support of Copyright Alliance members by sharing their experience and advice, as well as for their assistance in filing a regular stream of amicus briefs on behalf of copyright and creativity;
- The Motion Picture Association, Paramount, SESAC, BMI, the Recording Industry Association of America, the Recording Academy, the Music Publishers Association, the Christian Music Publishers Association, and the law firm of Baker Hostetler for their kind and generous donations that enabled the creation of our Initiative to Promote Diversity in Copyright (IPDC) as well as the many lawyers, academics, and law student volunteers who have donated their time to help BIPOC creators enrolled in the program register their copyrighted works with the U.S. Copyright Office;
- Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts (VLAs) for continuing to support creativity and innovation by providing pro-bono legal services and educational workshops to independent creators throughout the country;
- A copyright law that protects the television shows, books, music, magazines, photographs, movies, software, video games, art, newspapers, and so many other creative works and incentivizes their creation and dissemination so that people like you and I can enjoy them.
As we all look forward to 2023, we at the Copyright Alliance will continue working hard to ensure that the rights of American creators are respected, that they are adequately compensated when their works are used, and that those who infringe these works and rights, and those that facilitate those infringements, are held accountable.
Happy Thanksgiving!
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