On Wednesday night the Copyright Alliance hosted a one-year anniversary celebration in the breathtaking Lyndon B. Johnson room off of the Senate floor in the US Capitol. Our anniversary actually was in May, but this was when we could get the room, and that was worth postponing our celebration.

The room was appropriate; LBJ's protégé was of course Jack Valenti, who for many years championed copyright at the Motion Picture Association of America. Mr. Valenti had a vision for an organization whose membership would include all copyright industries, and he took many steps toward that goal. His successor, Dan Glickman, shared that vision and was at the front of the movement to create what we now know as the Copyright Alliance.

We had about a dozen members of Congress stop by, including a gracious visit by Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Arlen Specter (R-PA), our host for the event. Mr. Specter gave some moving remarks, and we were so pleased he shared his time with us given his ongoing health challenges. As he says in his book "Never Give In," he truly is a fighter, and it's great to have him as a supporter of copyright and intellectual property.

During our event celebrating artists I was admiring an artist's fresco on the ceiling. It was painted in the 1860's by Constantino Brumidi, the "Michelangelo of the US Capitol." His works are in the Rotunda as well as other parts of the Senate side of the Capitol. Despite painting while a Civil War was raging, Brumidi painted with themes of optimism and peace.

One of the four scenes painted on the ceiling is called "Telegraph." It marks the first transatlantic cable across the Atlantic, from Newfoundland to Ireland. The fresco depicts Europa crossing the Atlantic on a bull (a disguised Jupiter) to greet warmly America, who is wearing a freedom cap and has an eagle, the symbol of US military might, contrasted with America leaning on an anchor representing hope.

Think about it: this revolutionary form of communication – the telegraph – inspired a fresco in the US Capitol. I've looked, but I've yet to find the fresco celebrating the Internet. It's interesting to note that despite the significant changes the telegraph brought to the 1800's – including Lincoln's ability to hang out at the War Department and get near-real-time reports from the various Civil War fronts – the fundamental rights outlined in the constitution, particularly copyright, did not change.

Since that communications revolution we have had some evolutions, such as the telephone and yes, the Internet (not a revolution in any sense of the word). These evolutions also have not changed the fundamental principles found in the US Constitution, namely that extending rights to an author or inventor encourages their production of more works, and thus serve society.

Again, we couldn't have had a more appropriate room to mark the Copyright Alliance's entry into its second year.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, June 12th, 2008 at 9:51 am by Patrick Ross and is filed under capitol hill, creators, founding fathers, internet. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.