APA needs our help regarding copyright legislation

[jetrim]

Got this yesterday from a colleague who is a Member of the APA. I did ask Photo John via PM before posting. Seems like a very worthy cause. I signed yesterday.

Advertising Photographers of America is partnering with the Copyright Alliance in asking you to sign a letter that is being sent to President Obama and Vice President Biden. APA's advocacy efforts to support strong copyright protections for photographers and all owners of intellectual property are a vital component of our mission. With the threat of further erosion of copyright protections on the horizon, sending a message now to the President is an opportunity that should not be missed.

The Copyright Alliance is a non-partisan coalition of associations, creators and copyright industry leaders that give a voice to individual authors of creative content including photographers. This letter allows your voice to be heard in cooperation and inclusion with creatives from all areas of intellectual property.

Let the White House know that their support is critical to the protection of the rights of artists and the continued value of creative efforts in today's society.

Go to http://www.copyrightalliance.org/letter/ to sign the letter. It is an easy process of entering your name, city, state, type of artist (photographer) and email address. Click the sign button and you're all done.

Please do this, it is extremely important to all of us as photographers.

Once you have signed the letter please forward it on to your colleagues and friends in all areas of creative output.

Thank you.

[SmartWombat]

So, what copyright protections are you losing?

[jetrim]

It is not about specific copyright protections currently slated to be withdrawn, but with the general erosion of enforcement over the past years, more of a plea to stay vigilant, coinciding with the selection of Victoria Espinel to serve as the first U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator. The letter itself is here: http://www.copyrightalliance.org/letter/

[ken1953]

I just added mine!!! But, we'll need a lot more signatures than they currently claim to make a difference, so if you know someone, urge them to sign!!!

[icicle]

Also added mine

[brmill26]

The copyrights currently in place in the US are very extensive and hugely favor creators. The current term for protection is life of the creator plus 70 years. Rather than eroding this right, Congress keeps extending it. Copyrights are, in fact, far more extensive now than they ever have been. That is in terms of your rights, the ease of exercising them, and the amount of protection/penalty per violation.

This should not be confused with enforcement. Copyrights are almost always private rights (ie, not a "criminal" act the State enforces), so where there is "lax enforcement," the fault lies in creators who do not pursue violators. The rights are there, but if creators continually let others steal or misuse their work, or give it away for free, that is what undermines the creators who do seek to enforce their rights.

So if you ask me, the APA should rewrite their letter and address it the millions of photographers and other content creators in this country who willingly let others steal their work. If they want greater enforcement, that's the only solution. But the reality is, only a tiny part-percentage of creators actually understand their copyrights, and therefore, you will continue to have a vast volume of created content which is given away free, stolen, modified, and misused.