Thank you to all of the good folks at the Music Publishers Association, since 1895 the oldest music trade association in the United States, for honoring the Copyright Alliance with the prestigious Arnold Broido Award for Copyright Advocacy. Mr. Broido, universally considered a music industry treasure, passed on in 2007, but the publisher of symphonic and concert music is fondly remembered.

The MPA is a staunch advocate of the rights of music copyright owners. It works closely with other music publishing organizations (of which the Copyright Alliance includes several, such as the National Music Publishers Association, the Association of Independent Music Publishers, and the Church Music Publishers Association) as well as the U.S. performing rights organizations (Copyright Alliance members ASCAP, BMI and SESAC) to spread the word about the importance of copyright owners’ rights.

MPA also is active in education. It works with schools across the country in its “Copy-Free Zone” campaign and recently announced a partnership with the National Association for Music Education (MENC) to produce a Copyright Awareness Scholarship for students age thirteen to twenty-five.

I’ll be receiving the award today at MPA’s Annual Meeting at the Harvard Club in Manhattan, and I’ll be sure to pay tribute to the entire Copyright Alliance team, which works tirelessly to move forward both the Copyright Alliance and the Copyright Alliance Education Foundation. It’s just plain silly how much this team accomplishes given how few of us there are, and I say that with all credit to them.

It can be difficult at times, continually pushing this rock up the hill only to experience the frustrations of Sisyphus, but we all feel encouraged when rightsholders let us know that they appreciate what we’re doing for them. We’ll be around a bit longer, I suspect, remaining a thorn in the side of those who seek to move us to an inverted world where artists and creators see their rights forfeited to those who consume rather than create.

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This entry was posted on Friday, June 4th, 2010 at 6:07 am by Patrick Ross and is filed under copyright opponents, creators, education, events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.