Maintaining a balanced and innovation-oriented copyright framework
The U.S. has a strong and innovation-oriented copyright framework that protects creators/legitimate rights, enables new innovation, and allows consumers to benefit – including through safe harbors and limitations and exceptions like fair use.
The U.S. has a strong and innovation-oriented copyright framework that protects creators’ rights, enables new innovation, and allows consumers to benefit – including through safe harbors like those in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and limitations and exceptions like fair use. This framework has been critical to the U.S. digital economy domestically and should be promoted globally. Fair use of copyrighted works underpins one in eight U.S. jobs, drives 16 percent of our economy, generates $5.6 trillion annually, enables the employment of 18 million Americans, and generates $368 billion in exports annually. They hold the key to future U.S. innovation, including in areas like artificial intelligence.
Governments around the world are proposing new, onerous systems of copyright liability for internet services. For instance, they may not provide the types of balanced copyright protections like fair use or fair dealing that are essential for internet services to function and for future innovation. Without a flexible system of copyright that encourages innovation and supports creativity, other countries will increasingly misuse copyright to limit market entry for U.S. companies.