House Follows Senate In Giving The President A Copyright Czar

from the priorities,-people dept

Tue, Sep 30th 2008 2:56am — Mike Masnick

While failing to do much of anything (other than fingerpointing) to deal with the economic crisis we're facing, the folks in the House did spend some time easily passing the ProIP bill that the Senate passed last week. So, now we just have to wait for the President to sign it, and the entertainment industry gets their own person in the White House whose job it is to prop up their business model. Hell, if Wall St. gets one of those, why not the entertainment industry?

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Filed Under: copyright czar, intellectual property, white house

16 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 30 Sep 2008 @ 3:30am

How much for the doggie in the window?
Seriously. This country need an enema.

I'm not voting along party lines and no one is getting a 2nd term, regardless of anything. You all suck. One Exception: Russ Feingold. He's staying. Spoiler alert: he's not up for election this year, but I'm quite convinced he has balls the size of cantaloupes. Wisconsin may be full of Cheese Curds, but hey, they are lucky to have him.

Everyone else... I hear Cantaloupe is in season. Get some.
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rwahrens (profile), 30 Sep 2008 @ 3:54am

not quite
Washington Post says Bush is not likely to sign it, and that is in part because the Justice Department has serious reservations about the criminal investigations resources this issue would divert to what is, essentially, a private litigation issue. He also feels that their creation of a position in the White House without his consent is a violation of the separation of powers principles in the Constitution.

So he is likely to veto it on the grounds of it being unConstitutional.
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Michael Long, 30 Sep 2008 @ 3:59am

Department
"Hell, if Wall St. gets one of those, why not the entertainment industry?"

Ummm... doesn't Wall Street have an entire Department (Treasury) devoted to its needs? And not just a single "czar"?
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some old guy, 30 Sep 2008 @ 4:26am

Re: Department
No, the Treasury Department is akin to the governments accountant, not the nations investment advisory.
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Michial, 30 Sep 2008 @ 4:45am

Re: not quite
Do you REALLY believe Bobble head Bush even knows what the constitution is? With all the unconstitutional things he has done it would be a bit hypocritical of him to veto using the document that he has done nothing but thumb his nose at for the past 8 years.
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bikey (profile), 30 Sep 2008 @ 5:04am

copyright czar
Now that the financial industry has tanked, IP is really the only thing sustaining US economic hegemony. Expect fastracking of Anti-Counterfeiting trade agreement, stronger lobbying of EC Commission to pass IPRED2 and more pressure at home to facilitate criminal prosecution. Combine with DHL increasing its surveillance through laptop and document searches and what have you got?
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Anonymous Coward, 30 Sep 2008 @ 5:12am

I doubt they even read it.
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Oorgle, 30 Sep 2008 @ 5:14am

Come on Bush, don't sign it...
This whole situation is upside down and preserving a system (a BUSINESS MODEL) of printing data on discs.

I will be royally pissed if Bush is dumb enough to sign it into law without listening to advisory.

(in response to #6, you have a broom handle all the way up the rectum of Americans)
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bikey (profile), 30 Sep 2008 @ 5:14am

Re: czar
Maybe they can't even read it, but is that the point? They keep it. If they want to chill you or worse, they have it.
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hegemon13, 30 Sep 2008 @ 6:23am

Re: not quite
The DOJ enforcement provision has been removed from the final bill at the request of both the DOJ and the administration. So, the last remaining piece that Bush objects to is the copyright czar. The articles I read said that he is unlikely to veto based on that one issue.

Even if he does, however, the bill passed unanimously in the senate, so I would assume it passed pretty easily in the House. If that is the case, they should have the votes to override the veto. I think we're stuck with this no matter what.
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Overcast, 30 Sep 2008 @ 7:15am

Will they have a 'special' police force to thug people when they violate copyright?
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J, 30 Sep 2008 @ 7:18am

Re: Re: Department
If the "bailout" passes, thats not true anymore. I'm glad they're finger pointing and failing to pass it. The fact that Wall St. is basically trying to point a gun to the economy's head and say "give us our money or else" is disgusting. When regular people fail, they pay a hefty price. When Wall St. fails, WE pay a hefty price and they still make out like bandits.

NO BAILOUT!!!
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Anonymous Coward, 30 Sep 2008 @ 8:14am

Veto can be overturned, but doesn't matter
What matters is, did a certain senator who's soon to be president vote for or against? Because said senator, after elected president, could probably lead a media frenzy against this idea and get all those votes to change.

Techdirt better upgrade their servers before they become the only ones with informative articles on the issue, during the future media frenzy, and hence would experience server crashes....
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Anonymous Coward, 30 Sep 2008 @ 8:43am

Re: Veto can be overturned, but doesn't matter
Every press report notes that the bill was unanimously approved by the Senate.
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chris (profile), 30 Sep 2008 @ 11:30am

Re: not quite
Bush is not likely to sign it, and that is in part because the Justice Department has serious reservations about the criminal investigations resources this issue would divert to what is, essentially, a private litigation issue. He also feels that their creation of a position in the White House without his consent is a violation of the separation of powers principles in the Constitution.

wow, if that is true it will be the first sensible thing that tard has done in a long time.
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Anonymous Coward, 30 Sep 2008 @ 11:33am

Re: Re: Veto can be overturned, but doesn't matter
That just means that on one voted against it not that every one voted for it.
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