I’d never heard of it before, either, but today is in fact the seventh annual World Intellectual Property Day, and the Association of American Publishers wanted to let us know that they’ll be going to Capitol Hill later today to join the Creative and Innovative Economy Center, the Congressional Entertainment Industries Caucus, and a bunch of other groups to listen to Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez give a speech about “the importance of encouraging creativity to global economic development, health and artistic achievement.” Said speech will likely also “raise awareness of the cultural and economic benefits provided by the copyright industries,” and warn how “piracy stifles creative growth.”
The World Intellectual Property Organization has some suggestions for your World IP Day party, most of which would’ve required a little more advance warning than this. Like “[organizing] concerts or other public performances centered around the around this year’s World IP Day theme and [arranging] for performers to deliver messages encouraging respect for creators and creativity.” I’m sure Metallica would’ve been up for that had they known…