WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Re:Create Coalition today issued the following statement regarding the U.S. Commerce Department’s Internet Policy Task Force’s White Paper on Remixes, First Sale, and Statutory Damages. The paper examined key copyright issues and made recommendations and suggestions to “ensure balanced and meaningful protection for intellectual property while preserving the dynamic innovation and growth that have made the Internet and digital technology so important to our economy and society.”

“The Re:Create Coalition is encouraged by the Internet Policy Task Force’s recommendations to the extent that they would simplify and clarify copyright law. Many aspects of current copyright law are inconsistent, unfair and only serve to deter creativity. While innovation would have been better supported by a recommendation to severely limit the availability of statutory damages, these proposed reforms are a positive step toward an improved system with clearer judicial guidelines, more reasonable damages amounts and more discretion.

“However, while the white paper affirms the need for fair use and other limitations to protect remix culture as an integral component of a thriving Internet, the Task Force missed an opportunity to recommend actual policy changes to better promote and support the investment, innovation and creativity that remix culture contributes to the digital age,” said Josh Lamel, Executive Director of the Re:Create Coalition.