Congressional Hyperbole Used To Urge Bush To Accept A Copyright Czar

from the and-so-it-goes dept

We've already seen that the Bush administration has said that it really doesn't want the "Copyright Czar" that Congress has been trying to give the White House. However, as the bill sits on his desk to sign, it appears that plenty of folks are trying to pressure Bush into signing it (he has until Tuesday to veto or it automatically becomes law). We already noted that the US Chamber of Commerce was using totally ridiculous and made up numbers about job and dollar losses to get Bush to sign, and now it appears that various politicians are sending ridiculously hyperbolic letters to the White House to push for signing the bill as well (thanks to Jim Harper for alerting me to this).

Let's start with Senator George Voinovich, who actually claimed that signing this bill "would be a fitting achievement and legacy." Now, I don't care what you think of the present administration, but you'd have to be pretty disconnected from world events to think that adding a copyright czar will ever be considered a part of Bush's "legacy." Somehow, I would imagine that there is a long list of other things that will most likely be on his legacy list before anyone gets around to a totally unnecessary copyright czar.

Then there's Rep. Lamar Smith, who ran the intellectual property subcommittee in Congress before the Democrats and Howard Berman took over. However, Smith and Berman -- despite being on different sides of the aisle, have pretty much identical views on intellectual property, so it's no surprise that he would tell the President that signing this bill is "not merely desirable, but necessary." Necessary, huh? For what? That seems like a pretty strong claim without an iota of proof. That's because it's not "necessary" at all. In fact, about the only thing it's likely to do is to hold back the more innovative business models the economy needs by propping up one industry's obsolete business model.

Then we've got Senator Arlen Specter, who complains that vetoing this bill could lead to "fallout" with trading partners, concerning the equally awful ACTA treaty. That makes very little sense. Both this bill and ACTA were basically written by the same lobbyists, and both serve to do the same thing: prop up a broken and obsolete business model of the American entertainment industry. Vetoing the bill is unlikely to have any serious international ramifications, other than from countries tha might stand up for themselves and push back every time the US demands they strengthen IP laws just to protect a few American businesses who refuse to innovate.

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Even Senators Who Want Stronger Copyright Laws Are Worried About ACTA

from the as-they-should-be dept

We've been wondering for a while now about why the ACTA treaty is being negotiated in such secrecy -- since the treaty will almost certainly greatly expand copyright laws around the world, without any real judicial approval. So it's good to see our concerns are echoed even by politicians who have long supported Hollywood's efforts to strengthen copyright law. Following the recent Congressional hearings about ACTA, Senators Patrick Leahy and Arlen Specter (who were behind the Senate ProIP bill that would put a copyright czar in the White House and unsuccessfully tried to make the FBI Hollywood's private police force) have now sent a letter saying that they're quite concerned about the ACTA Treaty. They're worried both that it will be too broad and that it's being negotiated entirely in secret. When even the politicians who push Hollywood's legislation are questioning ACTA (which is being written by Hollywood insiders), perhaps it's time that ACTA negotiators finally open up the process and let the rest of us in.

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Sen. Arlen Specter Demands Investigation of Spying... In The NFL

from the priorities dept

Sometimes, no amount of snark can top the real world. Threat Level notes that "Arlen Specter, the Republican leader of the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Wednesday demanded an independent investigation into 'Spygate.'" Not the administration's various warrantless eavesdropping programs, but allegations that the New England Patriots have been secretly recording the signals of opposing teams. Because, of course, Congress has nothing more important to worry about than cheating in football. This is particularly galling when juxtaposed with reports that the administration has unveiled (sort of) a "cyber-security" proposal that includes expanded spying on the Internet. That is something that could use more scrutiny from Congress. Indeed, because the Bush administration has shrouded details of its surveillance programs in secrecy, Congress has a unique role in investigating the proposal and exposing any aspects that could violate civil liberties. And the Ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee would be a big help in those efforts. But unfortunately, the threat of expanded spying in the NFL is such a serious problem that Sen. Specter doesn't seem to have much time to investigate spying programs that affect those of us who don't play football for a living.

Timothy Lee is an expert at the Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Timothy Lee and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.

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