The Small Claims Report has been created to chronicle ASMP’s efforts to lobby Congress to adopt an alternative, straight-forward, cost-effective system in which our members and others can seek relief for the type of copyright infringements that have become all too common today—especially in the online environment.
Mike Klipper, ASMP’s outside counsel, and Tom Kennedy, ASMP’s Executive Director, will be posting articles and related documents, highlighting actions of the U.S. Copyright Office and those being taken on Capitol Hill to progress the establishment of a Small Claims Tribunal, which has been the focus of ASMP and other visual arts organizations.
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Small Claims Advocacy Campaign 2016: To download chapter advocacy materials for scheduling meetings with Congressional representatives, and participating in member letter writing campaigns in support of small claims bill legislation, please click here.
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To view full chronology of all Copyright Reform Action and Advocacy Alerts, click here.
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As the August recess unfolds for Congress, we continue to move forward with plans for a grassroots campaign to lobby Representatives on the House Judiciary Committee. As a next step, we want to identify ASMP members who might have direct relationships with the House Judiciary Members. In addition, I’d like to identify members at the local chapter level who may have an interest in being part of an ASMP political action committee to arrange in-person meetings with Representatives…
The House Judiciary Committee is making progress on its plans to pursue a multi-part copyright reform proposal that includes a provision to enact a permanent small claims copyright court. As previously reported, the small claims component is designed to provide photographers and other individual creators plagued by copyright infringements with a viable, cost effective alternative to the burdensome and prohibitively expensive federal court litigation route. As promised by Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) and senior Democrat…
Cross-post from pdnpulse.pdnonline.com [by David Walker] A federal jury in Maryland has awarded $900,000 in actual damages to an Oregon-based plant retailer for its claims against a competitor over unauthorized use of two dozen copyrighted images. The jury verdict, delivered last week, also included a $300,000 statutory damages award, but the plaintiff may elect one jury award or the other (not both) under copyright law. Under a Foot Plant Co., owner of a product line…
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman, Chuck Grassley (R- IA), Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT) today introduced the Register of Copyrights Selection and Accountability Act, which makes the Register of Copyrights a presidentially-appointed, Senate-confirmed position. ASMP Executive Director, Tom Kennedy, supports swift Senate action, and a final result of positioning the Copyright Office to have a permanent Register who is committed to driving forward Copyright Office modernization. After HR1695 was passed…
April 26 is World Intellectual Property Day. World Intellectual Property Day was established by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in 2000 to “raise awareness of how patents, copyright, trademarks and designs impact on daily life” and “to celebrate creativity, and the contribution made by creators and innovators to the development of societies across the globe”. Intellectual property rights play a vital role in all of our lives. Visit the World Intellectual Property Organization’s site to learn…
T Bone Burnett on the Broken DMCA Safe Harbors Cross-posted from Billboard.com [by Dan Rys] T Bone Burnett today submitted a five minute video to the U.S. Copyright Office that issued a scathing critique of current copyright laws, taking aim at “mega corporations and web moguls” that “are enriching themselves off the artistic, cultural and economic value everyone else creates,” and urging Congress to fix a copyright system that he says threatens the ability…
Image © Alyssa Schukar As you know, advocacy is one of the primary ways ASMP supports you, and your membership fees enable our efforts. Remember to renew your membership so we can continue our efforts to: Create opportunities to have your voice heard by those writing copyright legislation Report on what we’ve been doing on Capital Hill, why its important and how it might effect your business Deploy ASMP resources in 2017 to continue…
Image © J. David Ake For the past year, ASMP has been working with many other author groups as part of the Authors Coalition to reclaim non‐title-specific royalties from photocopies made abroad. With your help, in the past year ASMP has collected $80,000, which has allowed us to support and fund our Foundation, Seminars, Chapters, Specialty Groups, Online Business Resources and much more. Our share of the money collected is determined by the responses that we get from the genre survey below; your prompt and accurate answer on the Authors Coalition Survey will determine…
Today, ASMP as a member of the Coalition of Visual Artists, a group of visual artist organizations, filed a statement in which it described its views on reform of the Copyright Office, including a detailed analysis on what a copyright small claims housed in the Copyright Office, should look like. The statement was submitted in response to a request for comments by the chairman and ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee. The small claims portion of the statement—authored by…
Over the last year, the Copyright Office has been conducting a study of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). (The DMCA is a section of the copyright law that shields internet providers and websites from liability if they take down infringing material from their sites when notified by copyright holders). The Copyright Alliance has been actively participating in this study to make sure that individual creators like yourself have a voice. Last year, we created…
