The Copyright Alliance, which represents content creators, has asked President Donald Trump to stand up for copyright protections here and abroad, pointing out he has a personal interest in that protection.
One sign that the President, whose own copyrights include NBC's The Apprentice, may already be listening was his reported selection of Maureen Ohlhausen as interim Federal Trade Commission chair. She said Monday that "anything we are doing that is devaluing intellectual property rights inappropriately...will actually hurt the U.S economy and innovation down the road."
In a letter to the president Monday (Jan. 23), the group pointed to Trump's own IP.
"Throughout the long history of our country, few, if any, presidents have had a more sizable and diverse copyright portfolio than you," the group wrote. "Your experiences as a businessman have afforded you insights into the value and importance of copyright and how copyright protections help drive the U.S. economy and create millions of well-paying jobs and small businesses."
It said that it's important for copyright owners to get free-market value for their work, free of undue government regulations, and in the limited cases where the government does deem it necessary to set royalties, that fair-market value still applies.
Trump ran on a platform of boosting U.S. companies and cutting regulations, so unless there is a populist hiccup in that trajectory, he should be on the same page as the Copyright Alliance.
