Digital technologies are transforming the way people use copyrighted content and democratizing the the process of content creation. Copyright laws and policies should reflect and encourage these trends, but are struggling to keep up. Today the Consumer Electronics Association, with several public interest group partners, is launching a new “Digital Freedom” website and education campaign aimed at articulating and publicizing the interests of technology users and innovators in the digital copyright debate.

This effort can make a valuable contribution to the debate. Too often, discussions about adapting copyright to the digital world have tended to put all the focus on the question of piracy. While piracy is a serious issue, it’s really only part of the equation. To fulfill its mission of promoting creativity, copyright needs to strike a careful balance. And to get the balance right, it is essential that the voices of consumers, innovators, small and independent content creators — all the users and makers of digital technologies — are fully expressed and heard. This new campaign takes some welcome initiative to help make sure that happens.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 25th, 2006 at 1:43 pm and is filed under Digital Copyright. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.