Five Takeaways From World's Fair Use Day

[Commentary] By many accounts, World's Fair Use Day was a great success. We had a capacity crowd, with hundreds more joining in on the webcast. Members of the audience included staff from the White House, the State Department, the US Copyright Office and Congress. Since one of the main missions of the event was to demonstrate to policymakers the importance of fair use to our culture, our discourse and our economy, having a strong turnout from government is key.

Here are the 5 key takeaways:

1) Artists of all kinds want to be compensated, although it is not the driving force behind their creativity, nor is copyright a prerequisite to compensation.

2) Fair use, while important, is not a panacea for artists.

3) A business model problem and a copyright problem are not always the same thing.

4) Statutory damages are in serious need of reform.

5) Fair use benefits large copyright holders too.