Why Is President Obama Setting Up IP Enforcement Committees Rather Than IP Effectiveness Committees?

from the what-a-waste dept

The White House recently announced that President Obama has signed an executive order creating two new, very high level "intellectual property enforcement committees." The idea is to have high level folks in different federal government agencies coordinating their "enforcement" strategies, when they do things like seizing domains without due process or First Amendment considerations.

Of course, if President Obama were serious about improving American innovation and creative output (and living up to the Constitution), he would have put together intellectual property effectiveness committees, rather than enforcement committees. By this point, you would have to willfully ignore all of the studies highlighting how today's intellectual property laws tend to cause plenty of harm to think that the laws are "effective." That doesn't mean there can't be effective intellectual property laws, just that what we have today clearly does not qualify. Those laws do serve to help some parties, no doubt, but that's not the same thing as benefiting society. The Constitution makes clear that the purpose of patent and copyright laws is to promote the progress of science and the useful arts. And yet, at no time has the government ever stopped to look at the question of whether or not these laws actually do promote the progress of science or the useful arts.

It seems, then, that the only reasonable move would not be to ramp up enforcement of the current laws -- which have been shown to be problematic -- but instead to commission a look at what would actually be most effective in promoting the progress. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be in the cards at all. Too bad.
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

Filed Under: copyright, enforcement, intellectual property, ip, patents, president obama


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    Phillip, 11 Feb 2011 @ 7:30am

    As if

    It's not like any of us actually expected the government to give up power. Especially not under this administration. Copyright is just one more thing they get to have control over.

    That said, I really do wish they would take your suggestion, Mike.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    John Doe, 11 Feb 2011 @ 7:39am

    Innovation will soon come to a crawl

    If things keep going in the direction they are currently going and at the speed they are currently going, we can expect innovation to come to a crawl very soon. Pretty much any creator of software or website is probably violating many patents. With the patent holders so over valuing their patents, there is no way a new company could ever get off the ground if they have to pay the license fees.

    This goes for most any industry right now including pharma and electronics like smart phones. Your diagram of the patent lawsuits shows clearly what is happening and it is only getting worse. We can only hope the system implodes on itself soon, until then, real reform will not happen.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. icon
    Capitalist Lion Tamer (profile), 11 Feb 2011 @ 7:43am

    Oh, good.

    The country certainly needed more "enforcement" wandering around, operating under vague directives and without oversight.

    Of course, they're going to have to stand in line to get all up in your business what with the FBI, CIA, NSA, various city, state and local governments deciding that everything you do or say (especially on the internet) is just basically you compiling evidence against yourself for a charge to be named later.

    Your internet history is now an ongoing Exhibit A in an open-ended case. Your smartphone is an accomplice, I guess, thanks to its likelihood of sending damning evidence via SMS.

    This comment is probably being filed under "Seditionary Acts" as we "speak."

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. icon
    Steve R. (profile), 11 Feb 2011 @ 7:52am

    Efficiency

    Why take the time and effort to evaluate effectiveness since we need enforcement?

    By way of example, Obama appointed a deficit reduction commission. They came out with a report. Obama announced in the State of the Union Address that he didn't like portions of it and he then failed to even mention any recommendations to be implemented. So it appears that the deficit reduction report went directly into the trash. Seems that Obama is simply skipping advise that he would ignore anyway. Now that's efficiency.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 11 Feb 2011 @ 7:55am

    He wants to make sure that the laws are effectively enforced.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    Irving, 11 Feb 2011 @ 8:08am

    Why?

    Because he knows who fills his Cayman Islands account, same as any other politician.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. icon
    Bruce Ediger (profile), 11 Feb 2011 @ 8:09am

    Re: Innovation will soon come to a crawl

    Hasn't innovation in pharmaceuticals already come to a crawl, or even stopped? I think all of the new anti-inflammatory drugs have been taken off the market, or cancelled.

    I seem to recall, but can't find, an article about how there's nothing in the pipeline from major pharmaceutical companies. That is, with extended rights to the drugs they've got, they quite investing in new drugs.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. icon
    :Lobo Santo (profile), 11 Feb 2011 @ 8:14am

    Re: Innovation will soon come to a crawl

    That's not quite true though, is it?

    People can't help but be innovative.

    Remember when alcohol was illegal? People innovated an amazing array of gadgets for smuggling, house-hold storage, and organized criminal distribution of alcohol in short order.

    Presently, marijuana is still mostly illegal. And I'll bet you could find the ways and means to purchase everything you'd need to do said illicit substance in any city in the US in under an hour.

    Later, when innovation is technically illegal thru IP enforcement, we'll still be innovating. Just not legally. In fact, in some ways it seems as though certain types of innovation thrive more than normal the moment they're illegal...

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 11 Feb 2011 @ 8:17am

    cause he is an idiot

    And he has been an idiot since he took office. The man is nothing more than a puppet for the content industry.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  10. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 11 Feb 2011 @ 8:22am

    The way to fix this is not by asking anything anymore is by taking positive action.

    If it is a war they want, then people should give them exactly what they want, open source initiatives should patent everything and put it into a patent pool and negate those people the use of monopolies to control a market, that would force them at some point to create mechanisms to dismantle those patents pools and in the process creating the tools to dismantle IP laws as we know them today.

    IP enforcement is not selective, besides there is a small problem I don't think the U.S. alone has any power to change IP laws on their own, just like the U.S. did with the U.K. in the 40's other countries could just enact IP laws and exclude everybody else which is very attractive to many countries. People must show them in a very real way why those laws doesn't work and they need to do it by taking action.

    They want to corner the public, is time the public corner them, realizing their own solutions and using their own laws against them.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  11. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 11 Feb 2011 @ 8:46am

    Re: cause he is an idiot

    Hey now, be fair.

    He's a puppet for several industries.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  12. identicon
    theskyrider, 11 Feb 2011 @ 8:50am

    Re: cause he is an idiot

    You can probably blame Biden for this. Obama is so worried about Egypt right now that he just rubber stamps anything Biden puts in front of him. It's not that he is any more of a lying politician than any other president, he's just a tool and acting like a tool.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  13. icon
    Capitalist Lion Tamer (profile), 11 Feb 2011 @ 8:54am

    IP Theft

    Maybe Obama's new roving band of IP enforcers will drag "America's Most Wanted" into the 21st century and profile some of this nation's most wanted IP thieves.

    We could be treated to breathtaking reenactments of someone uploading something to Rapidshare followed by grainy B&W shots of various hard drives. John Walsh would be allowed to ramble on about how "dangerous" this all is and etc. while proudly pointing out that law enforcement is responding faster than ever to claims of "sharing."

    link to this | view in thread ]

  14. identicon
    dosta, 11 Feb 2011 @ 9:00am

    No surprise

    maybe folks will realize one day the dems are in the pocket of big buisness as much if not more than republicans..

    link to this | view in thread ]

  15. icon
    The eejit (profile), 11 Feb 2011 @ 9:02am

    Re: IP Theft

    I now have the mental image of Obama as the CEO of the megacorp in the Accountancy Shanty sketch. Thank you.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  16. icon
    TPBer (profile), 11 Feb 2011 @ 9:04am

    Stossel's New Show

    "To Catch an IPredator", setting up stings illustrating the rampant piracy spreading thru the suburbs of middle america.

    Next it will be equated with meth labs.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  17. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 11 Feb 2011 @ 9:06am

    I'm surprised Obama doesn't just sign an executive order increasing his term of office from 4 years to 40 years. I guess he hasn't thought of it yet.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  18. identicon
    bshock, 11 Feb 2011 @ 9:06am

    Re: Re: Innovation will soon come to a crawl

    I like this line of thinking.

    I've long suspected we need an underground communication system that parallels the Internet and avoids the easy meddling of government/corporate thugs. That would be a good start for bootleg innovation. Further bootleg innovation could come from that.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  19. icon
    Zacqary Adam Green (profile), 11 Feb 2011 @ 9:15am

    More and more, I get the feeling that nobody in the Obama administration has even heard the other side of the IP argument. It doesn't seem like it ever reaches anybody important.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  20. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 11 Feb 2011 @ 9:23am

    Why not just amend the Constitution to eliminate Article 1, Clause 8, Section 8 from the Constitution? Of course, the 10th Amendment would also have to be amended to ensure that such powers denied the federal government are likewise denied the state governments.

    After all, it is so 1789-ish, hardly of relevance to present day society.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  21. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 11 Feb 2011 @ 9:38am

    Why? Easy Obama is a liar. Change we can believe in. As in lots of change in our pockets from Hollywood do to their bidding.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  22. icon
    Hephaestus (profile), 11 Feb 2011 @ 9:50am

    Re: IP Theft

    "Maybe Obama's new roving band of IP enforcers will drag "America's Most Wanted" into the 21st century and profile some of this nation's most wanted IP thieves."

    That would make a great parody.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  23. icon
    :Lobo Santo (profile), 11 Feb 2011 @ 9:58am

    Re: Re: Re: Innovation will soon come to a crawl

    If the need truly arises, it will come about.

    Just watch for "Should you be scared of those they-might-be-illegal-internet wires?" Stories on FoxNews, CNN, and the WSJ.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  24. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 11 Feb 2011 @ 10:09am

    I think we should strictly enforce patents, with the condition that all patents are licenceable without discrimination for for free in any noncommercial use and for commercial use the price of the lesser, 10 cents or 1% of the final commercial product. Problem solved, enforce patents all you want, it won't get in the way of research. If you patent software and someone sells the software for free, well, they don't pay anything and if you got a problem, you better figure out how to convince people to give you money for what someone else will do for free.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  25. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 11 Feb 2011 @ 10:33am

    Without enforcement, there is also no effectiveness. If you don't like the rules, work to change the rules. The current problem is that the rules are not easy to enforce, so people ignore them

    Enforce the rules, then change the rules as needed based on what you find trying to enforce them. The ideas are not mutually exclusive, even if you try to up that way.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  26. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 11 Feb 2011 @ 11:07am

    Re:

    "Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in Federal prison and a fine of $250,000."

    link to this | view in thread ]

  27. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 11 Feb 2011 @ 11:09am

    Re:

    "Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in Federal prison and a fine of $250,000."

    link to this | view in thread ]

  28. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 11 Feb 2011 @ 11:29am

    Re: Re:

    Which are nice words if it is not enforced.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  29. icon
    Mike Masnick (profile), 11 Feb 2011 @ 11:57am

    Re:

    Why not just amend the Constitution to eliminate Article 1, Clause 8, Section 8 from the Constitution?

    Hmm. Can you point out where I said we should ignore the copyright clause? I actually said exactly the opposite in the post. That we should actually pay attention to what it says.

    Now why would you state the opposite of what I said like that?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  30. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 11 Feb 2011 @ 12:16pm

    Re: Re:

    I did not say anything about what was contained in the article. My comment was merely to note that elimination of the powers from Article 1 and the 10th Amendment would truncate the copyright and patent regimes altogether.

    If neither copyrights nor patents promote progess in the sciences and useful arts, then why even have them?

    Of course, such amendments would certainly be DOA, but consideration of what might happen if the regimes were eliminated might move the discussions here in a new direction, specifically, what would be the end result of doing so and what might spring up in their place?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  31. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 11 Feb 2011 @ 12:21pm

    Re: Re:

    Erm, I think he was referring to Stuff that some of the trolls said, not what you said, Mike.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  32. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 11 Feb 2011 @ 12:31pm

    Re: Re: Re:

    So if they are enforced those words become bad?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  33. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 11 Feb 2011 @ 2:21pm

    Re: Re: Innovation will soon come to a crawl

    I heard that the greatest innovation in home marijuana production was the introduction of LED growth lamps that cut the heat produced to levels that heat sensors can't distinguish from other sources of heat.

    Also production of spirits is still a crime but that didn't stop people from using fraction columns to produce those.

    Hint: The easiest fraction column you will ever build is a tube filled with marbles :)

    link to this | view in thread ]

  34. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 11 Feb 2011 @ 2:34pm

    Re:

    And there is no rules that would make it easier so people will continue to ignore it.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  35. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 11 Feb 2011 @ 3:26pm

    Re: Re: Innovation will soon come to a crawl

    Bruce, the drugs that are cancelled or taken off the market generally are because they either fail trials or have adverse reactions when put into use.

    The understanding of pain relief and control of inflammation has sort of reached a dead end on the level of chemical adjustments. In a lot of cases (such as sulfa drugs) they are really stretching the limits looking for any and all possible combinations that might have some effect. In all of that tens of thousands of compounds have been developed and used as medicine over the last 100 years or so.

    The next steps are likely to occur as we get a better understanding of human genetics and the how some of the dna switches occur. The best solutions going forward may have more to do with stopping the original problem, as opposed to treating it's symptoms.

    Most of the Pharma companies are investing hugely in research in these areas, and things are moving forward. But like any big leap, it may take a while before results are seen at the consumer level.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  36. icon
    Thomas (profile), 11 Feb 2011 @ 4:36pm

    Simple reason..

    The IP people contribute lots and lots of money under the table to Congress and the White House. Pay enough, get what you want is the big rule in American politics these days.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  37. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 12 Feb 2011 @ 8:38am

    But... but... censorship!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  38. identicon
    monkyyy, 12 Feb 2011 @ 11:46am

    Re:

    agreed, protest outside white house? no the lobbyist would make up a story, breaking into the white house and explaining our side? no we get kicked out in 2 seconds and the news would spin it as people who should just talk to their congress officials

    hacking Obama email to show a page essay? maybe but so many laws would be broken
    the said essay tried to a rock through the window to his office with some money? yes that could work

    link to this | view in thread ]

  39. icon
    Any Mouse (profile), 12 Feb 2011 @ 9:32pm

    Re: Re: Re: Innovation will soon come to a crawl

    I can point to a drug where this doesn't hold true. Phoslo. A phosphorous binder use primarily by dialysis patients. This was taken off the market to be replaced by Renvela, a much more expensive version of the drug.

    At this point, it's cheaper to take Tums with the meals instead of the prescription medication. Same active ingredient.

    link to this | view in thread ]


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.