For Immediate Release
December 10, 2008
Contact: Claire Werner
cwerner@ppa.com
www.sepsociety.com

SEP and PPA Meet with President-Elect Obama’s Transition Team

The Society of Sport & Event Photographers (SEP), Professional Photographers of America (PPA) and other members of the Copyright Alliance met and discussed intellectual property rights with President-Elect Obama’s Transition Team last Friday in Washington, D.C. Building a good foundation with the incoming administration is key, especially with the creation of the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator position at the White House level.

“We were honored to be invited to participate in this meeting and have the opportunity to express our thoughts and concerns to the upcoming administration,” stated SEP and PPA CEO David Trust, who represented SEP and PPA at the meeting as an At-Large Board Member of the Copyright Alliance.

Transition team members attending Friday’s meeting were: Daniel A. Sepulveda and Peter Cowhey. Sepulveda manages immigration, interstate commerce, labor, trade, and ethics and lobbying reform issues for President-Elect Barack Obama. Cowhey, an expert on international trade and regulatory issues, is Associate Vice Chancellor and Dean of the School of International Relations and Pacific Studies at the University of California, San Diego.

SEP and PPA brought photographers’ concerns to the forefront, as the only representative from the photographic industry in this discussion. “We represent photographers—our members—whenever needed,” added Trust. “As a non-profit, and the only professional photographic association with a fulltime Copyright & Government Affairs staff, we make sure our members’ concerns are not forgotten in meetings like this.”

The discussion revolved around the Copyright Alliance and the greatest concerns of U.S. creators, especially in regards to intellectual property enforcement. Trust stressed the photographic industry’s importance to the economy, indicating that “professional photography services generated an estimated $7.3 billion in revenue” (U.S. Census Bureau). He then made Sepulveda and Cowhey aware of the vast professional photographic network (over 122,000 nationwide) encompassing every Congressional district…and the impact intellectual property and its domestic and international enforcement play in their livelihoods. After all, those 122,000 professional photographers create an estimated 20,000 works each year.

“We felt [the transition team] was very receptive and interested in what we had to say,” commented Trust. “And we hope to have a very long and fruitful relationship in the years to come.”

# # #