Thank you Lynn Reznick for forwarding this to me. Summary: The new White House copyright czar is collecting comments from artists on how to improve copyright protection. See below for details. All comments must be received by Wednesday, March 24, 2010, at 5 p.m. EST. Please read and submit your comments.
FROM THE ILLUSTRATORS’ PARTNERSHIP
White House Seeks Artists’ Comments to Improve Copyright Protection
3.18.10
New Copyright Czar begins Joint Strategic Plan to Protect Intellectual Property
Victoria Espinel is the first U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator (IPEC), also known as the Copyright Czar. Congress created IPEC by an Act of Congress. Ms. Espinel serves within the Executive Office of the President to coordinate with all the federal agencies that fight the infringement of intellectual property.
Ms. Espinel and her team are specifically tasked with formulating and implementing a Joint Strategic Plan to help protect the ingenuity and creativity of Americans by improving the U.S. Government’s protection of the rights of intellectual property owners.
Your input is requested.
The White House is inviting your public input and participation to shape an effective intellectual property enforcement strategy. Please respond with your written submissions regarding the costs to you, your business and the U.S. economy resulting from infringement of your intellectual property rights, both direct and indirect.
This will be a 2-part process.
The first is to gather public recommendations by March 24. IPEC will then gather your input on the formulated plan.
Please be precise.
Include your name, city, state, and what type of artist you are. Explain why copyright is critical to you as a commercial artist, how infringement affects you, and what the U.S. government can do to better protect the rights of American artists. If your submission is about your economic loss due to infringement of your copyrights you must clearly identify the methodology used to calculate your losses or otherwise validate your infringement and enforcement costs.
Your submission will be publicly posted.
For this reason, please do not include in your comments information of a confidential nature, such as sensitive personal information or proprietary information.
Confidential disclosures.
If you have confidential business information that would support your recommendation or that you believe would help the Government formulate an effective enforcement strategy, please let them know by contacting:
Thomas L. Stoll
Office of the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator
(202) 395-1808
Deadline: Submissions must be received by Wednesday, March 24, 2010, at 5 p.m. EST.
Address: All submissions should be sent electronically via intellectualproperty@omb.eop.gov
…and now, forwarded to the Webcomics.com private forum, and the Panel & Pixel forums, too. 😉
“what the U.S. government can do to better protect the rights of American artists”
I think that this invitation for input is a great step in a positive direction, and I hope someone wouldn’t mind mentioning in their letter that copyright protection is a concern shared by artists worldwide.
Unless you live behind “The Great Firewall” of China, the information highway doesn’t have borders, so whatever progress/changes are made to US Copyright Law, it will have an international affect on cartooning colleagues.
Thanks for passing this on, Lynn! 🙂
I love the idea of this! It gets me all excited.
What I don’t love is the way they offer this, like, would you like to write a term paper for us? Which I told them when I called them.
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=========Alex