Last week, the Center for Copyright Information (CCI) participated in the World Creators Summit* here in Washington, DC as a panelist. The Summit brought together international representatives of the creative world from authors to musicians to executives involved in the creation, production and dissemination of creative works around the world. The gathering allowed CCI to highlight the importance of voluntary, multi-stakeholder programs and talk about the early implementation phase of the Copyright Alert System (CAS) to a group interested in finding solutions to the problem of online piracy in ways that are compatible with innovation and the growth of digital content distribution.
Victoria Espinel, US Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator for the White House, gave the keynote address at the Summit. The work of her office includes everything from efforts to combat counterfeit medicine to protecting the work of artists. However, her remarks last Thursday focused on copyright and creative content. During her remarks – a summary of which can be found here – Espinel spoke about the need for a multifaceted approach to effectively combat online copyright infringement:
“We believe that if we target infringement using a variety of approaches and tools at the same time we can make some headway and reduce infringement online and protect the creativity that our artists and artists around the world create while supporting the benefits the Internet creates.”
Espinel spoke supportively of private-sector voluntary agreements including CCI’s efforts:
“The goal of this agreement and under the terms of the agreement, they will notify subscribers through a series of educational alerts when their Internet service accounts appear to be misused for infringement on P2P networks,” Espinel said.
As part of her message, Espinel noted that, in the opinion of the Obama Administration, voluntary initiatives “must respect privacy, due process, free speech and competition. They also must be practical solutions that truly work to protect legitimate uses of the Internet.”
Espinel’s comments set the tone for the panel discussion, titled “Digital Anti-Piracy Initiatives – What Works Best?” which included CCI Executive Director Jill Lesser. Lesser emphasized the educational nature of the CAS and the importance of helping consumers find legal options for enjoying the creative content they love through sites like Music Matters and Where To Watch.
*The World Creators Summit, created and organized by the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC), represents the leading annual gathering for executives involved in the creation, production and dissemination of creative works. This year’s event took place in Washington, DC from June 4-5, 2013.