Policy Priorities
Whether we’re advocating for strong copyright policies, protecting free speech, or promoting the advancement of research and scholarship, our focus is on the central role that publishers play in enhancing our culture, education, workforce, and democracy.
Our work covers several key areas:
Advocating for Strong Copyright Laws
Copyright is the foundational building block of a vibrant publishing industry, enabling authors, scientists, educators, and many others to produce the books, articles, educational materials, and other literary works that define our culture, support our democracy and enhance our daily lives. In short, copyright empowers creators to change the world, one word at a time.
AAP advocates for a modern and effective copyright system that enables publishers to create, market, and distribute a wide array of high-quality books, journals, and educational materials that support a well-informed public, and enrich American culture.
Laws & Agreements Must Preserve the Value of Copyright to the U.S. Economy
Intellectual property is the backbone of modern trade: America’s core copyright industries – including publishing – collectively contribute $1.3 trillion in annual value to the U.S. gross domestic product. In order to preserve and grow the creative industry’s critically important economic contributions we must:
- Demand strong domestic policies and international agreements that require technology platforms to take an active role in preventing piracy and in establishing a fair and transparent online marketplace.
- Ensure that international trade agreements include robust copyright protection and enforcement mechanisms.
- Return to the longstanding policy of not imposing tariffs on educational, scientific, and cultural materials, where books and informational materials can flow tariff-free in and out of the United States – no matter where they happen to be printed.
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A Modern and Effective Copyright System Includes:
- A Digital Millennium Copyright Act that’s fair to creators
- Freedom to contract
- Meaningful enforcement of the law
Promoting a Free and Transparent Marketplace
Publishing has been at the forefront of the digital revolution, embracing the unprecedented opportunities of the online economy, exploring new ways of distributing and marketing books, eBooks and audio books, and developing innovative new digital materials for education, research and scholarship.
At the same time, many publishers have been negatively impacted by the emergence of dominant platforms that operate at a scale which often makes it impossible to do business without them. And even as these players, including Google and Amazon, have built their platforms into a defining force in global commerce, they have also enabled counterfeiting and deceptive marketing practices to proliferate.
At AAP, we advocate for a regulatory framework that encourages innovation and competitive-market choices for both consumers and suppliers. The marketplace of ideas will be irreparably diminished if the government permits it to be served only—or even predominantly—by a very small number of dominant platforms.
Protecting Freedom of Expression and the Free Exchange of Ideas
Freedom of speech and freedom to publish are twin pillars of our democracy, and together they play a central role in creating and sustaining an essential element of any free society: an informed citizenry.
As publishers, AAP members identify, nurture and promote authors working in a wide range of disciplines, and representing a broad array of perspectives. In the process they help ensure that our democracy benefits from a vibrant marketplace of ideas. When governments seek to censor expressive content or constrain independent scholarship, it affects the ability of publishers to exercise their copyrights.
While it is inevitable that some books will be unpopular, upsetting, or even offensive to some audiences, American law and policy have long recognized that censorship strikes at the very heart of our democratic ideals. At AAP we believe that it is only by exposing, confronting, and addressing controversial speech, not by hiding it, that the merits of that speech can be tested. As a result, we promote the vigorous exchange of ideas and opinions through books and other publications.
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