Protecting Creative Works in the Digital Age

The Congressional Creative Rights Caucus supports the rights of creators and promotes principles of copyright that encourage the continued creation and dissemination of creative works by artists, including in new and innovative ways.  More importantly, the Caucus aims to help the public understand that we cannot judge the entertainment industry by how well famous Hollywood or music stars are doing.  In fact, the majority of people who make up the creative community are everyday Americans who work hard to make a living in the arts.  Protecting the rights of creators will ensure they can flourish and have the ability to give us joy and fulfillment through their works. 

Fair compensation for all artists, across all platforms

Today, there are multiple ways that consumers listen to music, watch movies and TV shows, or read books.  Audiences want their entertainment when they want it and where they want it, which means it is more important than ever to ensure that artists are fairly compensated for their works across all platforms. Most people don’t realize that a songwriter only makes 8 cents for every 1,000 streams of one of their songs.  And most people don’t know that recording artists are not compensated for their works on over-the-air radio play.  The Caucus supports fair compensation for all creators across all platforms.

Online Theft

Online theft of intellectual property costs American businesses $250 billion every year, and robs American workers of more than 750,000 jobs. This problem not only impacts artistic creativity and innovation, it also hurts our economy and impacts the work force that is the backbone of the creative industry.  American workers and individual creators lose $16.3 billion in earnings to copyright infringement every year. This is not a victimless crime, and has real consequences for the real people. 

Search engines play a critical role in leading consumers to websites that offer infringing content. A recent industry study found that search engines refer more than 4 billion visits per year to infringing sites.  And another recent study showed that 432 million unique Internet users worldwide explicitly sought infringing content during one month alone.  As Internet usage continues to grow at a rapid pace, so does Internet-based infringement.  Although some key industry efforts through voluntary agreements have occurred, there is much more that can be done to deter consumers from accessing content on illegal sites and direct them to legitimate sources.  In fact, there are over 90 legitimate services to download or stream movies and television alone, innovation enabled by strong copyright laws.