Any veteran of Capitol Hill knows that some of the shortest legislative language can lead to some of the most dramatic reversals of law. Pick a random statute, add or remove the word “not,” then imagine the consequences.
It is important to keep this inverse relationship between text and impact in mind when reviewing draft legislation [...]

More people are watching video over the Internet than ever before. It is becoming increasingly easy to stream online video on your television, bringing the lean-back and lean-forward technologies together in a pleasant way. We want this to continue, right?
There are two challenges facing the growth of a legal online video market. One is piracy. [...]

While President Obama made many interesting points during his State of the Union address last night, I’d like to focus on his discussion of international trade. Obama made several key points: 1) Small business can be a growing part of trade, including entrepreneurs. 2) Americans can produce exports unrivaled by the rest of the world. [...]

Kudos to the House Judiciary Committee for holding a hearing Wednesday acknowledging a growing threat to copyright owners’ ability to produce and distribute high-quality entertainment; largely for-profit sites providing real-time streaming of copyrighted works without authorization from or payment to rightsholders.
Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) and Ranking Member Lamar Smith (R-TX) began the hearing by talking [...]

Three cheers to the Obama Administration for hosting Tuesday at the White House a key jobs summit, one involving the jobs of creators and their collaborators in creation. The Associated Press quoted the host of the event, Vice president Joseph Biden, as saying of copyright piracy:
“This is flat unadulterated theft, and it should be dealt [...]

What a thrilling week to be a part of the Copyright Alliance team! Just a couple of short months ago, when I began here as a intern, the Copyright Alliance’s Letter to the President hadn’t yet been launched, and planning for the third annual EXPOnential was in its very early stages. Not only was I [...]

Innovators from across copyright industries today gathered on Capitol Hill to provide a peek at new entertainment and educational products and talk about the importance of copyright to fostering creative new iterations of content.
Judith Curr, publisher of Atria Books, a Simon and Schuster imprint, described Atria’s new vooks, an exciting new product that blends text [...]

If you’d like to get a glimpse of the art scene in San Francisco, Chicago, and New York City all in one evening, then you should stop by the Copyright Alliance’s EXPOnential on Tuesday where artists from each of these cities will be discussing their work and their careers.
The Copyright Alliance’s Third Annual EXPOnential will [...]

Encouraging words yesterday from Victoria Espinel at her Senate hearing to be the first IP Enforcement Coordinator (IPEC) in the White House, a position created last year by the PRO-IP Act. (See my general take on the hearing here.)
She was questioned by the newest member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Al Franken, the only non-lawyer [...]

I had the pleasure of attending yesterday the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing for President Obama’s choice to be the nation’s first Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator (IPEC), the very capable Victoria Espinel. The Copyright Alliance earlier this week sent a letter to Committee members and Senate leadership urging swift confirmation of Espinel (see here a copy [...]