CSUSA Panel On Digital Activism

Last week, I had the pleasure of spending time with some of my favorite copyright lawyers at the Copyright Society of the USA (CSUSA) annual meeting. On Tuesday morning, Jay Rosenthal of NMPA, Mitch Glazier of RIAA, professor Robert Brauneis and author Robert Levine discussed the politics of copyright. The following is a summary of my take-aways and thoughts from that panel discussion.

From Wikipedia blackouts to coordinated online protests by companies such as Google, consumers were encouraged to engage in digital activism (i.e. using social media for lobbying efforts and other similar movements). These efforts are largely credited with keeping the Stop Online Privacy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) from passing Congress this year. Bloggers were eager to express their opinions about how copyright laws "chill their user rights".  Other citizens throughout the country contacted their congressmen and women to share concerns, many using notes prepared by the