Copyright Awareness Week

By Corey Field

As Cher said before she unleashed a legendary movie kiss on Nicholas Cage in Moonstruck, "Wait a minute, wait a minute!" As copyright and protection of creative work has become the hottest story in digital-age America, with groups representing creators, users, and copyright industries all voicing their concerns, Copyright Awareness Week proposes that everyone, no matter how diverse they may think they are, "wait a minute" and share a simple underlying truth, a "kiss" with the whole world: "Celebrate Creativity. Respect Copyright."

This common basis and this simple message are at the heart of Copyright Awareness Week, a new annual national event that will be held the first time from April 22-28, 2002. The event is the brainchild of The Copyright Society of the U.S.A., a non-profit educational organization whose membership predominantly (though not exclusively) consists of attorneys who love and practice copyright law, and who believe in and represent all facets of that unique, complex, and fast-changing law whose fundamental premise is the protection and fostering of creative expression. Members of the Copyright Society may be involved in virtually any viewpoint of copyright law, including creator's groups such as the WGA; copyright industry groups in entertainment and software; user groups; fair use advocates; etc. Copyright Awareness Week is the ultimate non-partisan copyright event: everyone is invited, no specific viewpoints are endorsed or favored. The event is educational. It is about increasing public awareness of copyright and what it does.

In bringing together the widest possible range of groups concerned with copyright, the purpose is not only a reminder that the heart of copyright and the copyright industries is creativity, but to also reach out to the public with that message by playing a coordinating role, by creating one week each year when all concerned groups can come together and spread the message simultaneously, and thereby achieve the greatest possible cumulative impact in a way that one organization acting alone could never accomplish.

The ways to achieve that impact are predominantly up to each group, and each individual, to determine. Media organizations can produce and broadcast public service announcements. Educator's groups can point teachers to curriculum materials. Other organizations can use the new Copyright Awareness Week logo and its message "Celebrate Creativity" as a simple way to spread that message via display on their web site, linking to sites such as the Copyright Awareness Week home page. Publishers and record companies can print logo stickers and affixing them to products such as CDs or books. A poster version of the logo, and insert-sized reprints, are available now from the Copyright Society of the USA.

2002 is the first year that Copyright Awareness Week will occur, and already the list of organizations who have agreed to be listed as "Friends of Copyright Awareness Week" is growing. To participate, an organization is asked to simply inform their membership of the event, and at their choosing to provide links to the information on the Copyright Awareness Week web site, and to generally decide to what extent time and energy are available each year to spread the message: "Celebrate Creativity." Organizations that organize educational events such as workshops are encouraged to schedule those events as near as possible to Copyright Awareness Week each year, and to publicize those events as part of the national event.

Additionally, individuals are invited to participate in the "National Teach-in" component of Copyright Awareness Week by arranging visits to local schools, and using curriculum materials provided on the Copyright Awareness Web Site to demonstrate the power of copyright protection for creators, and to bring the message to celebrate and respect creativity to students nationwide.

The essential web link is the Copyright Society of the USA homepage (www.csusa.org), where you will find the Copyright Awareness Week logo. Just click on the logo to visit the Copyright Awareness Week page where you will find further information, including a growing list of the "Friends of Copyright Awareness Week," curriculum materials for the National Teach-in, and other copyright education material aimed at the general public. Organizations and individuals are asked to let the Copyright Society know about their activities for inclusion on a national calendar of events to be available online.