In a public letter to Donald Trump and his transition team, the Association of American Publishers and its members offered congratulations to the incoming president—and urged his administration to take up intellectual property enforcement issues once in office.
“Whether operating on a commercial or non-profit basis, publishers’ reliance on their ability to secure adequate copyright protection and effective copyright enforcement, under both federal law and a variety of international agreements, is as critical to their success,” reads the letter, signed by AAP general counsel & v-p, Allan Adler.
Among the specific issues Adler raised for the president-elect: China’s “failure to live up to its commitments” on a range of IP-related issues; The benefits of multilateral trade agreements in connection with intellectual property rights; and updating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to combat what Adler called "the current epidemic of online infringement."
The letter comes just as the president-elect met with tech industry leaders yesterday in New York. And in his letter, Adler took aim at some of those leaders, claiming that threats to the publishing industry were "exacerbated by the conduct and rhetoric of some in the Internet-based services and consumer technology manufacturing communities," who, along with "the library, education and archival communities, share a common self-interest in continued advocacy to minimize the effectiveness of copyright protection and enforcement."
Adler said he looked forward to working with the administration during the rest of the transition period, and promised “specific recommendations" during the administration’s first one hundred days in office.
