Harman Patil (Editor)

Copyright Alliance

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Formation
  
December 14, 2006

CEO
  
Sandra Aistars

Location
  
Washington, D.C.

Website
  
copyrightalliance.org

Type
  
501(c)(4) nonprofit organization

Purpose
  
copyright education and advocacy

The Copyright Alliance is a nonprofit, nonpartisan 501(c)(4) organization representing artistic creators across a broad range of copyright disciplines.

Contents

The Copyright Alliance's institutional members include over forty trade organizations, associations, unions, companies, and guilds, that represent millions of individual creators. The Copyright Alliance also directly collaborates with and represents thousands of creative individuals and small businesses. The creative industries represented include writers, composers, recording artists, journalists, documentarians, filmmakers, graphic artists, visual artists, photographers, and software developers. The Copyright Alliance seeks to unite creators across various disciplines, to advocate for the protection of creative works, and to promote the livelihoods of creators.

History

At its launch in May 2007 the Copyright Alliance was founded by four Board members, ASCAP, Broadcast Music Inc., the Motion Picture Association of America and Universal. It was initially created and masterminded by the President and CEO Jack Valenti, of the Motion Picture Association of America. Music Legends Steve Cropper and Lamont Dozier attended the launch, that included a membership of 29 organizations purporting to represent 11 million workers, including the Association of American Publishers, Microsoft, the Recording Industry Association of America, Viacom and Walt Disney.

The launch of the Copyright Alliance was supported by U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI), ranking Representative Howard Coble (R-NC), and Representative Howard Berman (D-CA), members of the United States House Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition, and the Internet. Berman, speaking of his inspiration by the late Jack Valenti, spoke of "the constant assaults on copyright law" and called the group's launch "a tremendous idea". Coble said that ""Digitization and related technologies beg some changes to the copyright laws, and I wish you the best of luck and my support as you roll out the Copyright Alliance"

The Copyright Alliance was launched in opposition to the Digital Freedom Campaign, formed the preceding October, whose members include the Consumer Electronics Association, Public Knowledge, and the Electronic Freedom Foundation.

Patrick Ross served as executive director for four years until succeeded by Sandra Aistars on December 20, 2010. Prior to taking the position Aistars was Vice President and Associate General Counsel at Time Warner. She is also chairman of the Copyright Alliance Education Foundation.

Members

As of September 2015 the Copyright Alliance listed forty-one organizations as board and executive members.

Activities

In 2009, the organization presented a letter to the White House asking it to pursue policies supportive of artists' rights signed by 11,000 artists and creators. Over the years, the Copyright Alliance has collaborated with various groups. In 2014, It helped the US Copyright Office present its 2014 World IP Day program That same year, it also hosted a briefing on Capitol Hill with the Creative Rights Caucus to "discuss the challenges photographers and visual artists face in the internet age." The organization also works with groups such as Google, Yahoo, and Public Knowledge to develop voluntary best practices for addressing online copyright infringement.

Political issues

The group supported an IP-PRO bill establishing a "copyright czar" in June 2008 Senate Judiciary Committee hearings. The PRO-IP bill was introduced in the Senate shortly thereafter and passed into law. Ars Technica called the bill a victory for "Big Content", though a provision for the Department of Justice to join suits for the benefit of copyright holders was stripped from the bill.

On November 16, 2009, the Copyright Alliance was joined by some of its grassroots members in hand-delivering a letter to the White House signed by more than 11,000 artists and creators, calling on President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden to defend the rights of artists and creators.

In May 2009 it launched the Creators Across America campaign, which includes videos of artists and creators across the United States speaking about their arts and their rights under copyright law.

Copyright Alliance received $600,000 from the MPAA in 2012, which that year had also donated $475,000 to the Center for Copyright Information and $100,000 each to the Democratic Governors Association and Republican Governors Association as part of an anti-piracy campaign.

References

Copyright Alliance Wikipedia