Revolving Door: Administration's ACTA Defender Jumps Ship To US Chamber Of Commerce
from the lobbyists-in-and-out dept
You may remember Steven Tepp, from the US Copyright Office, who just recently defended the administration's position on ACTA by mocking the very legitimate concerns of many people about ACTA's exporting of stronger copyright laws, without any corresponding exceptions, combined with the fact that it would lock in currently in-flux US caselaw with no chance for Congress to fix mistakes by the courts. James Love alerts us to the news that Tepp has left the employment of the government to become the "Senior Director of Internet Piracy and Counterfeiting" for the US Chamber of Commerce.The Chamber of Commerce of course (a private organization, not to be confused -- as some people do -- with the government's Commerce Department) is famous for its anti-fact position on IP laws, where it always believes greater protectionism is better, despite the evidence. Of course, when all of the evidence is against the Chamber of Commerce, it came out with its own laughable study that confuses correlation with a causal relationship, and bases its conclusions on lumping together various companies and assigning their success or failure entirely to intellectual property laws. It sounds like Tepp should fit right in, though it again highlights the revolving door between the folks who make the policies and those who lobby for the policies.
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
Filed Under: anti-piracy, copyright, steve tepp
Companies: us chamber of commerce
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Just because there are conflicts of interest doesn't mean that those conflicts of interest are responsible for the secrecy. There could be good reasons that nobody is allowed to know what the document actually says, like national security. Just because the government lied about the national security concern in the last leaked and subsequently released document doesn't mean that national security isn't an issue in these new secret documents. Maybe these new documents have highly classified information that terrorists can somehow use. You don't know which is why you shouldn't point out these conflicts of interests as something to worry about.
Besides, you can always hire a psychic to know what the document actually says. What, can't afford to hire a psychic? I'm sure Miss Cleo would give you a discount.
Oh, and I forgot one thing. It must be Wednesday which means it's a slow news day suggesting that there must be more to this story. Even the AP recognizes it's a slow news day.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
by Fake Dark Helmet, Jul 8th, 2010 @ 6:10am
All three of you are part of a government and alien conspiracy! It all began on the planet Titty-Poop and involves the NSA, the CIA, Paris Hilton, and my dogs Deelee and Roscoe, who are actually cybordogs that can shoot death rays from their nipples!
AAAHHHH! Tin foil hat! Tin foil hat!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Mike, you just have to trust them. Forget about their untrustworthy history and just trust them. After all, if you can't trust your own government then who can you trust?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
are you seriously suggesting that the citizens of ANY country should need to hire a psychic in order to know what its government is doing?
national security issues? a very hesitant maybe...
trade agreements? never.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Well played.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
a bunch of virtual hippies claiming we should all live in communes isnt evidence, its opinion.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
See
http://levine.sscnet.ucla.edu/general/intellectual/against.htm
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
I imagine this is because his reading comprehension abilities stop at around a few sentences.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Hold on, did I say 'tragic'? I meant to say 'hilarious.'
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I'm in a hurry
Think I'll start a lobbying group and call it the Supreme Court of the United States.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
my card
I... would give almost anything to have that job title.
(I know, I know, it would just be a question of who killed me first, James Bond or my own boss, but still.)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: my card
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Unfortunately, I doubt this would ever happen. Cunts.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]