Fight for the Future recently launched a new campaign website called End Creative Monopolies, and among its many vague declarations, the petition asks signatories to “demand the dissolution of the current US copyright system and a fundamental reimagining of artists’ rights and protections for the 21st century that shifts power away from creative monopolies and puts the interests of artists and the public first.”
This is a common, if irrational, refrain. The underlying syllogism declares that corporate media producers and/or legacy copyright owners are wealthy and powerful (generally true). It then claims that independent creators are struggling and powerless (also frequently true). But the conclusion that the copyright system only serves the former at the expense of the latter does not follow as a generalization at all. The story about copyright and independents is a complex conversation about specific aspects of the law—judicial, statutory, and administrative—which FFTF is neither qualified nor willing to have in any way helpful to creators.
Meanwhile, you know who actually does care about helping indie artists make the most of the copyright system? Copyright advocates.
The people who are experts in the law and also believe in maintaining its fundamental principles are consistently talking about how to make the system work better for small creators. In fact, I don’t know a single pro-copyright authority (and I know quite a few) who does not think the system could use some tinkering in a few places to better serve individual authors. But tinkering. Not dissolution of the whole system and starting with a blank slate as FFTF decrees in its new campaign. Here are just a few recent examples off the top of my head:
Terrica Carrington, VP Legal Policy and Copyright Counsel at Copyright Alliance, recently blogged about the intersection of copyright and cultural misappropriation of choreography, explaining what the #blacktiktokstrike is all about. “Cultural misappropriation is an ethical concern that is not always rooted in the law,” writes Carrington, “but in some instances, these ethical concerns overlap with the law in such a way that makes the offense not only morally wrong, but illegal. That is the situation Black creators on TikTok are being confronted with: misappropriation of culturally relevant dances that may also be copyright infringement.”
The American Music Fairness Act is backed by copyright advocates great and small because this legislation finally proposes to overturn the status quo whereby U.S. terrestrial radio broadcasters have been exempted from royalty payments to musical artists. This law directly mandates that a very big industry finally pay fair rates to individual creators, which is just one reason my friend Blake Morgan (an archetypal indie artist) was standing on Capitol Hill the day lawmakers announced the bill this past June 24th. Did FFTF back this bill? Nah.
Steven Tepp, copyright consultant and former senior counsel at the Copyright Office, recently spoke with me on the IOM podcast about some of the formalities in copyright registration and enforcement that, with even modest changes, could make copyright work better for the independent author. For example, Tepp specifically recommends making the designation “published” optional on registration applications because the uncertainty in the law as to the meaning of “published” puts small creators at a disadvantage when it comes to enforcing their rights. I know that’s wonky and arcane, but that’s what actual, sober policy reform looks like.
Prof. Lateef Mtima, founder and director of the Institute for Intellectual Property and Social Justice, spoke extensively on the IOM podcast about how essential it is to not throw out the IP baby with the bathwater. “One of the problems with some of those perspectives,” Mtima said, “is that it basically accepts a premise that the system can only be utilized for social evil and corporate benefit. As I said in the beginning [of the podcast], I fundamentally don’t think that way, but as a practical matter, that’s not particularly helpful.”
Copyright Alliance, whose key members include several of the big media companies FFTF is complaining about, has filed pro-copyright amicus briefs in cases that have major implications for small creators. Allen v. Cooper, Unicolors v. H&M, Canada Hockey LLC v. Texas A&M University, Brammer v. ViolentHues Productions, Fourth Estate v. Wall-Street.com, VHT v. Zillow, to name a few.
Oh, and what was that law that passed at the end of 2020 that FFTF and its sister organizations tried so hard to kill? The Copyright Alternative in Small-Claim Enforcement (CASE) Act? Arguably, this is the most significant amendment to U.S. copyright law ever written with the sole purpose of helping independent creators, and FFTF, EFF, PublicKnowledge, et al opposed it. And worse, they lied about CASE being a big media bill, which is absurd on its face because big media doesn’t need a small claim option.
Specifically, on the subject of music, the good folks at FFTF should be ashamed of themselves for citing Spotify as a predator that pays songwriters pennies. I mean Spotify is a predator that pays songwriters pennies, but where was FFTF when the songwriters started mentioning this problem about ten minutes after the platform launched in 2011?* I know! They were being founded. Coincidentally at the very same time the Internet Association was established, the anti-piracy bills SOPA/PIPA were being hammered by Silicon Valley, and Google increased its lobbying expenditures from negligible to the top five. One might almost get the idea that FFTF was forged in a crucible of tech money for the purpose of weakening copyright law.
With Friends Like FFTF?
Independent artists already know the difficulties when it comes to protecting their work and enforcing their rights. I interact with some of these creators almost every day. And not once have I seen a writer, musician, photographer, etc. say, “Wow, I’m struggling because Disney is too big.” Why they usually say is, “Some clown just posted my work on his website or used it in his commercial or in a YouTube video, etc. without permission.” Or quite commonly, “A foreign counterfeiter is selling my stuff on Amazon or eBay.” These are the kind of problems copyright advocates discuss all the time.
Policy changes are hard. Look how long it takes to get infrastructure legislation passed when everybody mostly agrees! Fight for the Future has a lot of nerve declaring that a system as complex as copyright law is “broken” just because they say it is and then presuming to declare that we must scrap it and “reimagine” the whole thing for the 21st century. What this really means is that they want to reimagine some of your money into their donation coffers while they spin tales about agendas they are never going to achieve. And neither should they.
*Not surprisingly, yesterday’s Bloomberg Law story about renegotiating streaming royalties never mentions Fight for the Future. Just the usual pro-copyright advocates and experts navigating this difficult path between tech giants and the copyright law.
