With the Writers Guild of America strike in progress, the issue of authorship stands at the front lines. Authorship is not merely about copyright, intellectual property licensing and royalties. Authorship is about so much more.

• While enabling creators to retain authorship relinquishes control and intellectual property rights, authorship drives innovation. With innovation comes more variety for consumers and thus more value to licensors, especially in this creative drought and climate of radical change.
• Unionized strikes for authorship are capable of severely impacting revenue from product development; however, in addition to content industries, the issue of authorship is key to the vitality and continuity of emerging markets and technologies, such as social media enterprise.
• Authorship can be used as a marketing device for establishing, managing and renewing relationships with professional and fan creators to extend and stabilize the life cycle of products and even entire industries. Furthermore, authorship strengthens brands by encouraging participation.

By working with creators to secure their authorship, businesses secure their futures, ensure that consumers are free of the paradox of choice, reinvest in the culture of innovation, and produce results that matter to investors.