Senate Echo Chamber On Intellectual Property

from the who-can-sound-the-most-frightened? dept

You had to know something like this would happen when the Senate put Orrin Hatch in charge of writing copyright laws. Senator Hatch, of course, is the guy who originally wanted to outlaw the iPod and TiVo with his INDUCE Act, and the guy who wanted to find out how to create a virus that would destroy the computers of anyone who downloaded unauthorized music. So, it shouldn't be much of a surprise to find out that most of the panel session he held today, which was focused on international copyright issues, was filled with rhetoric about how other countries need to shape up. The details, though, show that the panelists, who were all very much on the "copyright maximalist" side of the fence (balance? we don't need no stinkin' balance!) seemed to try to outdo each other in spreading scary stories about terrorists abusing intellectual property, and how we need to make our IP laws even stricter. The best statement, not surprisingly comes from Copyright Register, Marybeth Peters, who blames anyone who is asking for balance for handing arguments to governments to protect organized crime: "What is problematic is that some American commentators who are prone to hyperbole about what they see as an imbalance in the U.S. Copyright Act are providing arguments and rationalizations that foreign governments use to defend their failure to address this type of organized crime." Yup, it turns out that in pointing out all of the reasons why less burdensome intellectual property laws can actually help an economy, we're really just protecting foreign terrorists and organized criminals.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    misterstinky, 26 May 2005 @ 7:07am

    No Subject Given

    I can just see the MPAA and the RIAA putting out adds like the anti-drug people did a few years ago...

    "When I illegally download a song I am supporting terrorism. And I like it."

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.