I’ve waited two days to write about President-Elect Barack Obama because it seemed, well, rather silly to localize this tremendously historic, emotional and moving event with an examination of copyright policy. I still feel silly, but Obama started working on his transition first thing Wednesday morning (well, actually news reports said he started with breakfast with his family followed by a workout, both of which are great ways to start the day off right). If he can jump in to his work and move past the awe of what transpired Tuesday night, I guess I can as well.

What does the election of Barack Obama mean to copyright, to the protection of rights abroad and to the continued incentive system for creators? We’ve addressed that before in comparing his copyright agenda to that of Senator John McCain (both stated a strong understanding of its importance economically) and we noted that Obama’s running mate, Senator Joe Biden, is a stalwart promoter of creators’ rights and a co-founder of the Congressional International Anti-Piracy Caucus. But there’s a larger perspective here that needs noting — copyright fits perfectly with Obama’s inspiring message throughout this campaign, a message of hope, a message of bringing parties together in a common purpose.

Yesterday I responded to a request from K.C. Jones of Information Week regarding an Obama copyright agenda, and here’s a passage from the story:

Copyright Alliance executive director Patrick Ross agreed with technology leaders and joined them in praising Obama’s knowledge of technology. He said that the next U.S. president has demonstrated a “clear understanding of the critical role copyright industries play in creating jobs and stimulating the economy.”

“Given the fact that he has placed improving our troubled economy as Job One for his administration, we in the Copyright Alliance are confident that his efforts will include strong copyright protection,” Ross said Wednesday. “Copyright has always been a bipartisan issue, supported broadly by Democrats and Republicans alike, as the votes approving the recent PRO-IP Act showed. The president-elect has made it clear he will be looking for opportunities to reach across party lines and build consensus, and copyright provides him an excellent opportunity to do so.”

We have repeatedly made the economic argument and will continue to do so because it has become more central than ever in these troubled times. But that last point needs to be emphasized more. Copyright truly is a consensus issue, with people and policymakers of all stripes recognizing its value. A few vocal blogs and a few sympathetic media outlets tend to create this notion of a war between creative industries and, well, I suppose consumers, but such a war doesn’t really exist.

Creative works are more popular than ever. The overwhelming sale of iPods have shown that consumers will accept certain restrictions when they see value. (That said, I wish Apple would choose to be more interoperable with other music systems.) Quality online outlets like Hulu.com can find large and legal audiences overnight and return revenues to the owners almost immediately. New devices such as the e-book reader Kindle ignite renewed interest in reading.

A handful of advocacy groups may have wished otherwise, but the fact is, when Americans went to vote Tuesday, they weren’t voting for some ill-defined concept like digital freedom. Americans by and large don’t think about copyright, and this is because the system works and they have access to all of the creative works they could possibly imagine.

If copyright law and protection were curtailed, and the production of those works declined, we would be alarmed and let our policymakers know our frustration, but for now we can continue pressing our leaders on the very real and immediate problems of access to affordable health care, rising costs for energy and food, declining values of homes and 401(k) portfolios, increasing layoffs and negative job growth. Thank goodness we will continue to have a good book or TV show to facilitate a brief escape from these problems.

We’ve seen about two dozen new members of the House of Representatives and about ten or so new senators elected this week. Many incumbents in both houses lost. Members of Congress know they are going to be up for re-election, and they’re not about to do anything to jeopardize that. They truly are “representatives” of their constituents. So when the House votes 409-10 on the PRO-IP Act, that suggests that a pretty overwhelming majority of House members, who were facing re-election just months after the vote, feel confident that this was in the best interest of the voters in their district. They were right.

As I told Information Week, copyright is one of those very few truly bipartisan issues. Supporting creators’ rights means everybody wins, from artists to consumers to our culture. There is a long history of consensus among policymakers on the issue; as an example just look at the hostilities that have flared up between Senators Leahy and Hatch over judicial nominations, and compare that to their enthusiasm at co-sponsoring legislation together promoting creators.

Politics doesn’t have to be personal. Obama is a shining example of that. I am fully confident he will welcome the opportunity to work with both Democrats and Republicans to ensure that, just as he said in his tech policy paper, copyright owners see their rights respected and enforced both at home and abroad.

We in the Copyright Alliance — our individual creators, our artist coalitions, our unions, our corporations, and our trade associations — look forward to working with him in this area, to boost our economy, create jobs, and encourage the creation of new works for all of us.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 6th, 2008 at 12:10 pm by Patrick Ross and is filed under Obama, capitol hill, copyright law, copyright opponents, creators. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.