Here's my submission, focussing more on the long-term:
Hello Lawmakers,
I'm not from the US, but this is such an important issue that I feel compelled to write to you now. I don't think it's hyperbolic to say this is going to affect how we approach the future of global culture. Where once there were distinct fields sparsely populated by career professionals, now almost anyone can be a 'creator' and share their work with the world.
Culture does not exist in vacuum, ideas do not spring forth without prior influence; people build upon the work of others by copying, transforming and progressing. Once this new content is released into the world, others may do the same with it. Limiting this through copyright has been a useful tool in the past to incentivise the production of new works, but over time is increasingly at odds with how people actually create. Re-evaluating copyright itself is for another time, but the first stepping-stone on that path is before you now: updating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to be sensible in 2016.
Your Supreme Court has regularly mentioned that Fair Use is a 'safeguard' that allows copyright law to be compatible with the First Amendment. It is therefore incredibly worrying that the DMCA notice-and-takedown process is knowingly being abused on a regular basis to remove content that is actually covered by Fair Use rights. The reasons for this abuse are manifold, but they all stem from the same problem: there are no repercussions for doing so.
US-based companies such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter need the legal tools to be able to fight back and actively discourage those who would seek to remove people's freedom of expression. Introducing such tools into the DMCA is paramount to solving this problem.
Please, lead the way in protecting the future of human culture. The rest of the world is watching very closely to see where you take this.
Also contributed
Hello Lawmakers,
I'm not from the US, but this is such an important issue that I feel compelled to write to you now. I don't think it's hyperbolic to say this is going to affect how we approach the future of global culture. Where once there were distinct fields sparsely populated by career professionals, now almost anyone can be a 'creator' and share their work with the world.
Culture does not exist in vacuum, ideas do not spring forth without prior influence; people build upon the work of others by copying, transforming and progressing. Once this new content is released into the world, others may do the same with it. Limiting this through copyright has been a useful tool in the past to incentivise the production of new works, but over time is increasingly at odds with how people actually create. Re-evaluating copyright itself is for another time, but the first stepping-stone on that path is before you now: updating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to be sensible in 2016.
Your Supreme Court has regularly mentioned that Fair Use is a 'safeguard' that allows copyright law to be compatible with the First Amendment. It is therefore incredibly worrying that the DMCA notice-and-takedown process is knowingly being abused on a regular basis to remove content that is actually covered by Fair Use rights. The reasons for this abuse are manifold, but they all stem from the same problem: there are no repercussions for doing so.
US-based companies such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter need the legal tools to be able to fight back and actively discourage those who would seek to remove people's freedom of expression. Introducing such tools into the DMCA is paramount to solving this problem.
Please, lead the way in protecting the future of human culture. The rest of the world is watching very closely to see where you take this.
Yours sincerely,
Duncan Hemingway
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