It is a week of petitions in the books world. With thanks to Porter Anderson over at Publishing Perspectives for drawing attention to this. Both of them touch on copyright. They may or may not also be connected around a common axis of copyright and technology.
ALLi News Editor Dan Holloway
Petition to Reinstate Shira Perlmutter
I’ll start with the new petition. The Authors Guild of America has launched a petition to reinstate Shira Perlmutter as U.S. Register of Copyrights. Now, I don’t pretend to be an expert on the intricacies of U.S. copyright law. I do, however, know enough to be aware that there are significant differences from the UK in regard to the protection afforded, for example, by registration of copyright. And that, therefore, the Copyright Office plays an important role in protecting the intellectual property of authors.
Perlmutter was removed from the post a week ago, and the petition will be presented to the White House administration in a bid to seek her reinstatement. Maria Pallante of the Association of American Publishers notes in her statement to Publishing Perspectives that there is an issue at stake over whether this represents overreach of the executive into legislative appointments, though she refrains from actively linking the motivation behind that overreach with any agenda to ease the path of tech companies in using copyright material.
Creators for Europe Petition Hits Milestone
It is this latter issue that is at the heart of the petition being run by Creators for Europe United. This petition has been running for a while now, but this week reached the landmark figure of 10,000 signatures. The petition’s demands are focused on four key pillars that will be familiar to most of us: transparency of the use of copyright material; payment for that use; enforcement for unconsented use; and a seat at the table for creators in shaping the future of policy and regulation.
For further context on Perlmutter’s dismissal and the surrounding debate, Publishers Weekly has more coverage here.
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