Comment from Kelly, Krystal
Krystal KellySupportIndividual
Summary: An individual artist argues that the current copyright registration fees are too expensive for small creators to protect their work from large companies. They advocate for more affordable and accessible intellectual property protections, similar to how tangible goods are protected.
Theft of intellectual property has reached the point in which large companies regularly steal from small artists. I think part of this problem is lack of education, because artists do not know they need to register their pieces with the copyright office, even if they do not plan to sell the work. If it is displayed, someone is quite likely going to steal it. To an artist who may or may not be selling work, $80 for one piece is a lot just to keep Target from stealing their work and printing it on t-shirts. What is a small artist to do when their intellectual property is stolen and another company makes thousands from it? If it's a hardship to pay $80 to file a copyright claim, then how much more will it take to fight in court?
Whether it's a large company or small company stealing intellectual property, this property should be protected in an easy affordable way. It's illegal to steal tangible goods, and everyone knows where to go if this property is stolen. The police don't ask whether you have registered tangible goods with the government. Intellectual property should have the same protections, and it should be easy to defend ownership.