NMPA Denounces American Law Institute Project, Seeking To Redefine Copyright Law

The National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) today (Oct. 17) released the following statement regarding the American Law Institute’s (ALI) Copyright Restatement Project, which is being considered for adoption by the Council of the American Law Institute.

The Restatement attempts to reinterpret established Copyright Law in a manner that harms creators and walks back the great strides that have recently been made. The Council could vote on the project as soon as tomorrow, Thursday, October 18.

“The American Law Institute’s (ALI) so-called ‘Restatement of Copyright Law’ was written by extremist anti-copyright lawyers in an attempt to redefine Copyright Law. The Restatement has been slammed by the U.S. Copyright Office, the American Bar Association, the US Patent and Trademark Office, and most importantly, the creators themselves.

“We have written the ALI Council to implore them to vote ‘no’ on approving the Restatement draft as we hope they will reject this sham attempt to undermine hard fought principles of understood law. This thinly-veiled attempt to subvert the law and undermine creators and must be stopped.” -NMPA President and CEO David Israelite

NMPA’s letter to the ALI Council was authored with the RIAA and outlines the myriad ways that the Restatement Project misinterprets the law. The letter is available upon request.