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: Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars

We Are Copyright Alliance, Hear Us Roar

By William Patry, Esq

In my prior blog I would occasionally write about the buffoonery of the Copyright Alliance, a laughably, tragically inept DC front organization for large corporate copyright owners portraying itself as the voice of individual artists. You know, the individual performing artists that the RIAA sought to deprive of their termination of transfer rights when the RIAA snuck in, in the dead of the night with no hearing, no bill, or no notice, legislation to convert them into employees for hire. You know, the artists whom the RIAA sought to deprive of bankruptcy protection. You know, the artists the MPAA has successfully prevented from gaining audiovisual performance rights in WIPO treaty negotiations. You know, those artists.

Anyway, a form letter just posted on the Alliance?s website beseeches President Obama and Vice President Biden not to give in ? never! not for a minute! --- to the vicious attacks on copyright being made by unnamed enemies of the Republic. Here are a few choice passages from the beginning of the letter (hey, sue me for copying it!):

We, the undersigned, are just a few of the more than 11 million artists living, working, and creating across the United States. Our work brings significant cultural and economic value to our society - and contributes $1.52 trillion to the nation's GDP. Yet that value is being disregarded as our rights and incentives to create are increasingly under threat.

Hear us as we speak with one voice about the importance of creators' rights.

 We are the essence of America. Since the founding of our country, our work has provided light in the darkness of conflict, humor in the depths of sadness, beauty in the face of ugliness, and reason in the dysfunction of division.

 We serve as the foundation of our communities; you find us in schools, performance halls, libraries, museums, community centers, and movie houses. We enrich our culture with a wide range of creative expression, including music, film, software, video games, writing, photography, graphics, and other visual arts.

We contribute in some way to every single industry in the country. Many of us are self-employed. All of us work hard and pay taxes.

 Yet, we are under assault. Our rights to control the distribution, use, and reproduction of our works in our vibrant digital age are dismissed by many who do not understand the value we bring to society. They tell us to work harder, create better, and give our works away. Some think that they should control our works and that they should be able to appropriate, perform, and copy them how they please, without our consent, benefit, or participation.

It is very hard not to laugh in the face of such ugliness and to wonder where the reason is in such dysfunctional nonsense, but what came to my mind was Helen Reddy?s 1972 anthem, which began: ?I am woman, hear me roar/In numbers too big to ignore.? The moral panic in the Alliance?s letter is that the very essence of what makes America America is threatened by evil forces that supposedly have launched an assault demanding that Helen Reddy and her 11 million colleagues give their works away for free, that the evil doers be permitted to have their way with the vestal virgins of America?s copyright sweethearts. This is of course complete baloney. Name one piece of pending legislation that would accomplish what the Alliance claims. Name one lawsuit currently pending that would accomplish what the Alliance claims. There are none.

So here is my plea, President Obama and Vice President Biden: throw the Alliance?s letters in the trash where they belong, and demand that we have effective copyright laws: not slogans, not inside the beltway bunkum, but instead change in our copyright laws we can believe in. Copyright laws that further creativity and innovation not smother them.

Full post as published by Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars on September 29, 2009 (boomark / email).