There’s a lot of information circulating on fair use in our society, some of it more reliable than others. Here at the Copyright Alliance, we believe fair use is an important safety valve allowing new creators and educators to make modest use of copyrighted works, but we also recognize that fair use has important limitations.
We’ve [...]

A university’s mission is educating its students. Congress should never thwart that. But nor should university administrations resist opportunities for education.
For those reasons we should all welcome the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HR-4137) that has emerged from a House-Senate conference and is on its way to passage in the House and Senate and then on [...]

In a potentially ground-breaking move, the six largest Internet service providers in the United Kingdom have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with hundreds of UK record companies via the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and with the Motion Picture Association with the intent of reducing infringing traffic of creative works online.
The MoU grew out of [...]

You find a range of opinions on orphan works legislation in Congress, including among Copyright Alliance members. But I believe all out there who care about copyright and creators’ rights agree that nothing good will come of an artist being denied their rights even when they are making efforts to ensure their works can be [...]

Well, we’ve been down this road before.
What is fair use? According to the American University Center for Social Media, fair use can be defined as follows:
Fair use is the right, in some circumstances, to quote copyrighted material without asking permission or paying for it.
Okay, we’re already off on the wrong foot. Most of that [...]

If you have any questions about the definition of copyright, what it supports, or how it affects our society through jobs or economic growth, you can now get an eight minute tutorial on the Copyright Alliance’s website.
The video takes you from the perspective of our founding fathers on rights of authors to the impact of [...]

The National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA) held its annual meeting in New York City this week. A few hundred member publishers - both big and small - attended, showing support for the diligent work of the NMPA. They graciously hosted the Copyright Alliance at the meeting as a partner in copyright issues.

The meeting was full of energy and excitement as ideas were exchanged, old friends reunited, and songwriters were honored.

Dan Glickman, chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America, launched the meeting as the keynote speaker, reinforcing the importance of upholding copyright across all arts industries. NMPA President and CEO David Israelite briefed attendees on industry facts and its efforts to support music publishers.

The recurring theme at "Creative Industries in Transition: New Directions for the Digital Era" today at GW University was from keynoter Robert Merges, law professor at UC Berkeley. In a paper presented at the symposium and in his remarks, he thoroughly discredited the "free culture" thinking rampant in academia. His thesis came in three parts: 1) Copyright still makes sense in a digital economy (the daily theme of the Copyright Alliance). 2) Discrete rights for different creators makes sense (he cited songwriters). 3) Performing rights organizations are more important than ever.

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

It's a question I ask time and time again: Should a copyright owner's rights be taken from them simply because their works are converted to digital form?

The answer should be obvious on its face — no. Whether a work is on paper or a download service, creativity, labor and money went into its production, and the US Constitution ensured that the creator/s behind it would have rights over its use.