WASHINGTON – The chairman of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee opened the second day of CISAC’s 2nd World Copyright Summit today with an inspiring address. A longtime champion of creators and copyright owners, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) reiterated his support for us in Congress and made clear his understanding of the importance of copyright as an engine for creativity, jobs and growth.

Known in some circles as the “Cyber Senator” for his early demonstration of his understanding of the Internet, he said it’s important to have a “fair and functioning system in our digital information age.” That, of course, means recognizing that a creator’s rights don’t diminish when a creative work is converted into ones and zeroes.

Speaking to an international crowd of rightsholders, the Chairman emphasized that there must be international cooperation, “a comprehensive, coordinated IP enforcement strategy.” We already have international treaties in place that, more than ever before, ensure a creator in one country can have their rights legally respected in almost every country. In practice, however, those rights often aren’t recognized.

Ralph Oman, respected former U.S. Register of Copyrights and now a law professor at The George Washington University, spoke after the Chairman. A traveler of the globe, he shared two key insights from an encounter with an artist in Ghana. First, emphasizing the importance of global cooperation on artists’ rights, the artist compared himself to a farmer, and said every farmer must spray for grasshoppers, for if one does not, their grasshoppers will return to the other fields.

The artist from Ghana also emphasized the important role copyright plays in creativity. “Why would you plant the crop if you don’t get to harvest the crop?”

Chairman Leahy said “you can accomplish more by cooperation” than conflict, which is what the Copyright Alliance is doing, both among its diverse membership and with policymakers and other stakeholders. He has been very supportive of our efforts, for example speaking at our EXPOnential event on Capitol Hill last fall.

In a digital world, he said, bits don’t recognize borders. This is true. But rights still must be respected. The attendees of this conference can ensure that happens, and they have a call to action from Chairman Leahy to do just that.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 10th, 2009 at 11:21 am by Patrick Ross and is filed under capitol hill, copyright law, creators, international, internet, piracy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.