Blog
  ·  by Brandon Butler

A Decade of Impact: Re:Create Marks 10 Years Championing Copyright Policies That Empower Innovators, Creators, and Consumers

This month marks the 10th anniversary of the founding of Re:Create, a diverse coalition of 19 member organizations, including libraries, civil society groups, technology companies, online rights advocates and startups, launched to promote a balanced copyright framework that supports fair use, innovation, creativity, and consumer rights. Since its inception, Re:Create has championed balanced copyright policies that protect a free and open internet, benefit creators, users and innovators, and safeguard the core American value of free expression.

From educating the public and policymakers on the value of fair use and the public domain, to more recent advocacy against harmful legislation, such as the COPIED, NO FAKES, FADPA, and PRO CODES Acts, Re:Create has become a leading voice and resource in the fight for balanced copyright policy. In its next decade, Re:Create will continue its efforts to protect the balanced copyright system that enables creativity, innovation, and competition in the digital age.

As we reflect on the past decade, listed below are some of the major victories Re:Create and its members have achieved in the fight for a fair, balanced copyright framework.

  • Fostering Fair Use on the Rise: The bedrock principle of transformative fair use was preserved and expanded in landmark opinions in the Supreme Court and appellate courts, with help from amicus briefs filed by Re:Create members. Fair Use Week was born, and dumb laws that would have rolled back fair use protections were stopped in their tracks.
    • In three cycles of triennial DMCA rulemaking proceedings, Re:Create members fought for and won new or expanded rules that permit breaking “digital rights management” systems to facilitate lawful fair use for teaching, scholarship, filmmaking, accessibility, software and video game preservation, and more.
    • In 2014, the first annual Fair Use Week was launched at Harvard. In 2015, ARL teamed up with Harvard to make this an annual event with participation from a broader set of institutions.
    • In May 2015, the Ninth Circuit issued its opinion in the Google v. Garcia case, which signified a win for free speech. (R Street)
    • In October 2016, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit unanimously found that the Google Books project, under which Google digitized, indexed, and permits users to search and view snippets of millions of printed books, constitutes a fair use. (ARL)
    • In April 2016, R Street and PK celebrated the United States Supreme Court denying cert in the long-running Google Books case, Authors Guild, et al. v. Google, Inc., letting stand the Second Circuit’s landmark decision that digitizing, indexing, and displaying snippets of print books in internet search results constitute a fair use under copyright law.
    • In April, 2021 Re:Create and several members applauded the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision in favor of Google in the Google v. Oracle fair use case. (EFF, Disruptive Competition Project, Engine, PK)
    • On May 18, 2023, the Supreme Court issued its opinion in Warhol v. Goldsmith, a limited opinion that preserves the transformative fair use framework, consistent with amicus briefs filed by Re:Create members.
    • On September 12, 2024, the Court of Appeals concluded in the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) et al. v. Public.Resource.Org, Inc. case that PRO’s non-commercial dissemination of standards, which had been incorporated by reference into law, constituted fair use. Therefore, PRO was not liable for copyright infringement.
    • In March 2025, Re:Create and several of its members sent a letter to the California Judiciary Committee expressing concerns with CA AB 412.
    • Throughout 2024-25, Re:Create published opposition letters and critiques of a laundry list of ill-conceived bills introduced in Congress that would undermine the fair use rights of artificial intelligence developers and users, including COPIED, NO FAKES, and TRAIN.
  • Stopping copyright proposals that belong in the dustbin of history: The content cartels never sleep, and some of their worst ideas seem to get trotted out every year with a new coat of paint. Again and again Re:Create helped keep these bills from becoming law and throwing the copyright ecosystem into chaos.
    • In March 2021, EFF thanked creators and organizations for sending letters to Congress in opposition to the Digital Copyright Act.
    • In January 2022, Re:Create celebrated the 10th anniversary of the rejection of the SOPA/PIPA legislation by Congress and the American people, highlighting the decade of creativity and economic growth that followed. (Creative Commons)
    • In June 2022, Re:Create and its members strongly pushed back against content industry demands for mandatory internet filters in the U.S. Copyright Office’s Notice of Inquiry on the development and use of standard technical measures (“STMs”).
    • In July 2024, Re:Create and its members successfully advocated against the PRO CODES Act and it has yet to be introduced in the current Congress.
  • Celebrating agency reports that get balanced copyright right: When federal agencies take the interests of all stakeholders seriously, their recommendations deserve our applause.
    • In January 2016, PK, CCIA and the Disruptive Competition Project commended the Department of Commerce’s Internet Policy Task Force for recognizing the importance of a balanced copyright law, and that copyright law’s onerous statutory damages provisions need to be changed in its White Paper on Copyright Reform.
    • In January 2025, Re:Create welcomed the USCO AI and Copyright Report Part 2, which stated that existing copyright law is sufficient to determine if AI works can be copyrighted.
  • Stopping Dangerous Link Tax Legislation: Misguided attempts to turn internet links into copyright infringement were all the rage for the last 10 years, but we showed how these bills are just windfalls for the hedge fund vultures who are destroying local news, holding these bad bills at bay.
    • In June 2021, Public Knowledge raised concerns about the JCPA and highlighted how it would not sufficiently support local news and journalists.
    • In December 2021, Re:Create’s published a blog sharing that small publishers, consumer advocates, librarians, academics & tech groups agree that link and snippet taxes would not benefit local journalism.
    • In January 2022, Re:Create and EFF applauded legislators for not including the JCPA in end of year legislation.
    • In June 2022, Public Knowledge shared why amendments to the JCPA still would not protect local journalism.
    • In July 2022, Re:Create released a Myth v. Fact sheet on the JCPA.
    • In September 2022, Re:Create and its allies continued pushback against the JCPA.
    • In December 2022, Re:Create illustrated how the big media companies (Gannett, Alden Global Capital and Sinclair Broadcast Group), who support the JCPA, already own most of the local news stations across the country and that passing the poorly written legislation would only give them more power to control the local news industry.
    • In December 2023, CCIA provided testimony in a California State Hearing, on the CJPA and released a white paper detailing harms of laws mandating payment for online news.
    • In January 2023, Re:Create highlighted national security concerns with the JCPA.
    • In March 2023, Re:Create and Public Knowledge shared why there is widespread opposition to the introduction of the JCPA.
    • In April 2023, Re:Create highlighted how the 2022 GAO Report revealed extensive concerns about the JCPA.
    • In the Spring of 2023, R Street and the Disruptive Competition Project shared a blog detailing why the 117th Congress didn’t pass the JCPA, and why the 118th should also reject the legislation.
    • In January 2024, Public Knowledge shared why the JCPA won’t save local news, including from AI.
    • In June 2024, the Disruptive Competition Project highlighted the flaws of the California Journalism Preservation Act (CJPA).
    • In December 2024, Re:Create emphasized the issues with the JCPA and urged lawmakers to keep it out of the end of year, must-pass legislation.
  • The Right to Repair and Digital Ownership Take Shape: Big companies tried to use copyright to make ownership a thing of the past, but this decade the tide turned in favor of repair and owners’ rights.
    • In June 2021, ARL applauded Maryland for expanding equitable access to E-books through Libraries.
    • On July 21, 2021, the FTC ruled to expand the Right to Repair legislation.
    • In August 2023, Apple endorsed a CA right to repair bill.
    • In October 2024, the U.S. Copyright Office partially granted an exemption requested by Public Knowledge and iFixit to allow people to circumvent digital locks in order to repair commercial and industrial equipment.
  • The Fair Use-Powered Creator Economy Explodes Into the Mainstream: When Re:Create was born, the “creator economy” powered by balanced copyright and open internet platforms was a thing we had to explain and defend. Now creators are a major entertainment industry in themselves, and traditional content industries are trying to catch a ride on creators’ coattails.
    • In May 2016, Re:Create organized a SXSW panel titled “Copyright & Creators 2026” that included policy experts–including a fanworks leader, social justice advocate, futurist and veteran reporter–to talk about the trajectory of copyright law over the next decade.
    • In June 2017, CCIA released its “Fair Use in the Economy” report.
    • In March 2018, the Disruptive Competition Project highlighted RIAA’s report which details five years of consistent revenue growth for the recorded music industry.
    • In 2018, Re:Create released its first annual Re:Create New Creative Economy Study.
    • In February 2019, Re:Create released its second annual report that revealed that more than 16.9 million independent, American creators earned a baseline of $6.8 billion from posting their music, videos, art, crafts and other works online in 2017.
    • In December 2024, a report was released indicating that the creator economy generated $29 billion in direct economic impact in the U.S.
    • In January 2024, CCIA released The Sky Is Rising 2024 Edition, explaining how the internet was fueling record revenues across every form of media creation.
  • Re:Create continues to grow and evolve.
    • In 2016, Re:Create was founded with 10 founding members and led by founding director Josh Lamel.
    • Since its founding, 9 members have joined the coalition, bringing us to 19 total organizations united in defense of balanced copyright
    • In 2024, Brandon Butler became Executive Director of Re:Create, leading the coalition into its second decade of service to the balanced copyright community.

While we are proud of the progress we have made, the fight for a balanced copyright system is far from over. As emerging technologies like AI reshape the creative and digital landscapes, it’s more important than ever to defend and strengthen the balanced copyright system that fosters innovation, protects creative expression and upholds consumer rights. Re:Create remains committed to working with policymakers, stakeholders, and the public to advance a copyright framework that is pro-innovation, pro-creator and pro-consumer.

Learn more about Re:Create and its mission here.

Archives