On Open Letter to NY Governor Kathy Hochul for Vetoing Bill 5837-B
by Neil Turkewitz
Thank you Governor. Your brave and thoughtful defense of authors is not, and will not go, unnoticed. As many other observers have noted, this bill would not only have harmed New York’s writing & publishing community, but ultimately the whole of the reading public. Authors and publishers are already struggling in a complex economic and technological environment. We should not be erecting new barriers for them to overcome — particularly in pursuit of an ill-formed belief — evangelized by Silicon Valley tech companies, that copyright is an anathema to innovation, progress & access. Today you said no. That is an act of great consequence.
In contrast to what Silicon Valley companies would have you believe about copyright being some kind of anti-competitive anachronism in defense of a legacy business model, it in fact provides creators with a bundle of rights that may be exercised in a way that is tech neutral. In no way does it protect any particular business practice or model. It is both flexible and adaptable. Copyright is not about the past — -unless we fail to keep it vibrant and robust, in which case we will all lose.
Minorities and women are the engine for free enterprise, and face unique challenges. This has particular implications in the cultural arena. We owe it to them, and to ourselves, to safeguard property interests that form the foundation of liberty and economic empowerment.
Given the disproportionate impact on women and minorities working in the independent creative sector when we fail to secure the property interests in copyright, the effect is to silence essential and diverse putative voices in the cultural marketplace. The internet has created the potential of individual creators and SME’s to reach audiences directly outside of established channels, and to expand the diversity of our cultural output. But we fail to capture that opportunity when we fail to establish means to protect investment in cultural production.
Cultural production should be as diverse as the world. We can help to achieve that by expanding the means by which individual creators can survive from the telling of their stories. You are now a part of that survival story. So once again, from the bottom of my heart, thank you! You have enriched the world. Made it more colorful. More creative.
