RIAA's Favorite Lawyer Tells Senate Committee He Hopes DOJ Can Focus More On IP

from the here-it-comes dept

Wed, Feb 11th 2009 7:29am — Mike Masnick

We've been talking about how the various favorite lawyers of the big content lobbying organizations all seem to be ending up in the Justice Department. Some have pointed out that these lawyers will most likely be focused on other DOJ business, since IP issues aren't a major issue within Justice. They also point out that folks in the Justice Department have very little impact on policy. That may be true... but at the hearings to confirm Tom Perrelli as associate attorney general, he did talk quite a bit about IP issues, saying that he hopes the Justice Department will bring renewed focus on the issue, while noting that existing US intellectual property laws "don't seem to be addressing the problem." As a starting point, that's not a great sign, especially since he focuses on the supposed "problem" when it's not even clear that there is a problem. He claims it's "counterfeiting" and "piracy" but we've already seen that piracy isn't a problem -- smart business models address that. And, as for counterfeiting, both the OECD and the GAO have made it clear that any "problem" has been massively exaggerated by industry lobbyists -- such as those Perrelli used to work for.

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Filed Under: associate attorney general, obama, tom perrelli

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Chuck Norris' Enemy (deceased), 11 Feb 2009 @ 7:43am

Payback
Hollywood and the entertainment industry got Obama the presidency. What did we expect? Change? Well, yeah! For the better of the people? Apparently not. Hollywood is cashing in their chips.
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eleete, 11 Feb 2009 @ 8:08am

Re: Payback
Change we can copyright, patent and trademark.

btw, wasn't it BHO who swore lobbyists would not be welcome in his administration ? I guess change is change.

Someone ought to patent saying one thing and doing the complete opposite. They can't run a re-election campaign without all that cash from the lobbyists they swore they wouldn't succumb to.
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Feb 2009 @ 8:37am

re-election campaign
You actually expect the us to survive long enough for our first bastard president to have a chance for re-election?
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yogi, 11 Feb 2009 @ 8:39am

Welcome to
The U.S. of RIAA , soon to resemble the USSR.
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me, 11 Feb 2009 @ 9:27am

Just a gentle reminder
For the "Art" to thrive, the industry has to die, so we can start over. Kill the music industry today.....
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LBD, 11 Feb 2009 @ 11:32am

True capatilisim
The ideal capatilistic system must be free from regulations that prevent people from having options, but overburnened with regulations that promote transparancy!

Because Capatilisim is only efficent when it's transparent
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Michial, 11 Feb 2009 @ 11:39am

Piracy is a HUGE issue
Just because you sit on your high horse and preach that you think music should be free doesn't change the fact that every time someone copies a song without permission or paying for it is still breaking the laws.

Smart Business plans or not, it is illegal to copy someone's music or movie or anything else without their permission. Get off your high horse and face the law...

I would actually welcome the justice department getting involved in the Copyright problem. At least then there will be checks and balances on who is charged and who is not.

As it is now the RIAA can slap a lawsuit on anyone they want, and to prove your innocence you will spend thousands on lawyers and have no way to recover those fees.

At least under the Justice Department, two things come into play, they will have to convince a prosecutor to prosecute you, and in addition you have the right to have an attorney appointed to represent you.

Granted moving this to the Justice Department is going to cost Tax Payers more money, but at least the extortion that the RIAA is using will go away. There will be less grandparents who are barely able to check email being accused etc...
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TPBer, 11 Feb 2009 @ 2:08pm

Re: Piracy is a HUGE issue
Stupid Industry Pussy!
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Mike (profile), 11 Feb 2009 @ 4:40pm

Re: Piracy is a HUGE issue

Smart Business plans or not, it is illegal to copy someone's music or movie or anything else without their permission. Get off your high horse and face the law...

Problem implies someone is being *hurt* by it. Yet, as we've shown, smart business models mean that no one needs to be hurt. This shouldn't even be on the DOJ's radar.
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You should've known this, 11 Feb 2009 @ 6:17pm

Re: Piracy is a HUGE issue
Michial -> "At least under the Justice Department, two things come into play, they will have to convince a prosecutor to prosecute you, and in addition you have the right to have an attorney appointed to represent you."

And ... in the bonus round ... they still have option of suing you in civil court (which is where it belongs in the first place).

The criminal case does nothing to mitigate the civil case.
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Feb 2009 @ 6:20pm

Re: re-election campaign
Political commentary has reached a new low.
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me, 13 Feb 2009 @ 9:32am

Re: Piracy is a HUGE issue
FUCK YOU it is. Kill the industry an d start over. Fucks like you are exactly why. Screw breaking the law, bankrupt it and kill it, once and for all, and start over.
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Jason, 1 May 2009 @ 1:39pm

Re: Piracy is a HUGE issue
So what, jackass! The law is wrong on this one.

"I would actually welcome the justice department getting involved in the Copyright problem. At least then there will be checks and balances on who is charged and who is not."

I never thought I would actually see someone write this and actually mean it, "I, for one welcome our new robot overlords."
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