SARASOTA, FL:  I love attending gatherings put on by my members,
because I get to meet people who are living in the world of copyright and
creativity every day. That is certainly true here at the annual conference of
the Church Music Publishers
Association; their Action Fund is a member of the Copyright Alliance. I
speak here tomorrow (Thursday) but Wednesday night featured a celebratory
dinner. It turned out the celebration, whether intentional or not, was passion,
creativity and inspiration.

During my nearly twenty years in Washington, DC, I've probably met more
lawyers than folks from any other profession. Not all are practicing attorneys;
most, in fact, work in government or for corporations or trade associations. The
next largest population group I've encountered, however, might just be
ex-lawyers. Not folks kicked out of the profession; no, people with law degrees
who at some point decided to work in a field not requiring a law degree.

The chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America addressed a
packed ballroom at the National Press Club today as part of the NPC's Luncheon
Series. Thus Dan Glickman drew at
least as large of a crowd as the NPC morning speaker, the Rev.
Jeremiah Wright. I heard Glickman, I did not hear Wright; I suspect the
former was less controversial than the latter, but Glickman did wade into the
choppy waters of international trade while emphasizing the importance of
combating piracy through law enforcement, international cooperation, and

On Friday U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab released the latest
Special 301 report, which highlights the nations most flagrantly violating
international treaties on intellectual property protection. You can see our
praise for the USTR's latest efforts in a statement
we released Friday. (See highlights of our statement and others in Associated

It may not have been the intent of the staff from the Institute for Policy Innovation who organized the event held yesterday in recognition of World IP Day to cause me to think of the effect of a small stone tossed into a calm lake, but I did.

As I listened to an esteemed group of panelists - Lien Verbauwhede Koglin of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Michael A. Gollin of Public Interest Intellectual Property Advocates (PIIPA), and Mohit Mehrotra of Excel Life Sciences - discuss the effects of intellectual property on local social and economic development in many countries, I thought of the many ripples that one stone can cause in a lake.

Washington, DC — In Hollywood, if you say "producer" and "distributor" it's entirely possible you mean the same individual/organization. But at a panel hosted by the Institute for Policy Innovation this morning, it was meant in a broader sense, as in a producer of any creative digital good, and a distributor of that digital good, i.e., an ISP. The panel was part of IPI's annual conference coinciding with World Intellectual Property Day, and was ably moderated by my former Progress & Freedom Foundation colleague Solveig Singleton.

Washington, April 24 — Once again, the Institute for Policy Innovation has assembled a compelling conference to mark World Intellectual Property Day (I hope you purchased balloons and noisemakers, even though IP should be celebrated every day). Their opening keynote today featured Entertainment Software Association President Michael Gallagher, who clearly has made a smooth transition from his time both in private practice and of course at the U.S. Commerce Department's NTIA. (Full disclosure: ESA is a Copyright Alliance member.)

Yesterday we at the Copyright Alliance praised FCC Chairman Kevin Martin in a statement for stating what cannot be said often enough; that it is appropriate to make distinctions between legal and infringing content online. Here are Martin's remarks before the Senate Commerce Committee, discussing enforcement of the FCC's policy principles on network management adopted in 2005:

I had the opportunity to hear celebrated Indian filmmaker Bobby Bedi on the Hill last night. Well, let me say I heard him, but it was hard to understand him, because the high stone walls of the Rayburn foyer are not conducive to good acoustics, and my ears have never been very sharp since a series of ear infections as a child.

I managed to make out the gist of his speech, though, namely that he wished there were more IP protection in his country, that doing so would boost the Indian economy, and that while Hollywood makes much of its money off of redistribution (pay-per-view, broadcast rights, DVDs), Bollywood makes maybe 5% from redistribution.

Well, China, it's a start. Variety, I look forward to your follow-up story after the summer Olympics.