Dear the Future President of The United States of America

There are many reasons why there are copyright laws everywhere in the world, including the US. The copyright laws that are put in place to protect the work of many artists, musicians and content creators all around the world. Our current copyright laws that are in place right now have many pros that should be kept, but they also have just as many cons that should be fixed and tweaked around with to improve the current copyright laws that are in place. That is why I am sending you this letter. Hopefully you get the chance to read this letter very soon.

Before I get into what is wrong with the copyright laws that are put in place right now, I feel like we should go over the six basic rights that are protected by copyright.

To reproduce the work in copies or phonorecords;

To prepare derivative works based upon the work;

To distribute copies or phonorecords of the work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending;

To publicly perform the work, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and motion pictures and other audiovisual works;

To publicly display the work, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works, including the individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual work.

To digitally transmit sound recordings by means of digital audio transmission.

A violation of any of the exclusive rights of the copyright holder is a copyright infringement, unless fair use (or a similar affirmative defense) applies.

Sources - Bryan M. Carson, 2007 - 2015

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get into the cons of the copyright laws.

Con #1 - Copyright Law Registration and Fees are too expensive

Although companies that create works for use in their business do receive basic protections for their work, they must register the work with the U.S. Copyright Office to be able to seek punitive damages for any infringement or to receive an injunction to halt an infringing action. Copyright owners must submit each work or collection of works individually to the Copyright Office, accompanied with registration documents – which can be bypassed using online forms – and registration fees that range from $35 to $220. Registering many works can be time-consuming and expensive for many small businesses.

Con #2 - The Current Format for the Laws are too expensive for owners to enforce

Companies that sell copyrighted work or use copyrighted materials as part of their sales material must be vigilant in order to identify infringements on their own. Even when companies designate a worker to enforce copyright, most matters are handled on a civil basis, rather than criminally enforced by authorities. This process can require legal representation in some cases. In the case of appeals, small copyright owners might have difficulty affording long-term representation. Conversely, a small defendant might not have the means to fight a copyright infringement lawsuit from a large corporation, even if she is not guilty.

Con #3 - The Copyright Laws are too vague

Although many issues covered by U.S. copyright law are straightforward, by the very nature of creativity, some areas are ambiguous and open to interpretation. Concepts such as the fair use doctrine and distinguishing derivative works from original creations aren’t clearly defined, and they must be decided by a judge or a jury on a case-by-case basis. Because of this, sometimes a company that owns copyrighted material expends time and money in pursuing its case, only to discover that the work wasn’t infringing by the court’s definition.

The reason why I care about these laws is that I am a youtuber right now and I also looking to become a music artist and when I start making original music, I wouldn’t want anyone to take my work and pass it off as their own work when it really isn’t. I couldn’t find any examples of this, but with the vagueness of the copyright laws that are in place being there, It’s a guarantee that there are many artists that got their work stolen and didn’t get any credit and got screwed over because of the wording of the copyright laws. There’s also the youtube deal which there is a big problem going on currently that relates to the Fair Use doctrine and people abusing the flagging feature whom the people running that portion of the site are actually automatic robots. That is the reason why I believe the most important thing that should be changed is the wording of the copyright laws that are in place right now, so that we could get a clearer line between what’s copyright infringement and what’s not.

Again I hope you get a chance to see this letter so you could understand why the current copyright laws we have right now needs to be changed. Have a good 4 to 8 years as the President of the United States of America

Jonathan G.