[Infowarrior] - Daffy Rep Berman at it again, still 0wn3d by Hollywood

[Richard Forno]

Rep. Berman: Pro-IP bill will become law in 2008
Posted by Declan McCullagh | 6 comments

http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9905598-7.html

HOLLYWOOD, Calif.--Rep. Howard Berman, who heads a congressional panel in
charge of writing copyright legislation, lashed out at Internet pirates this
week and defended his effort to add stiffer anticopying penalties to federal
law.

Berman, a Democrat who represents the congressional district near Hollywood,
said at a technology policy conference here that he was on track to enact
the so-called Pro-IP Act by the end of 2008. The bill ratchets up civil
penalties for copyright infringement and creates a new federal agency
charged with bringing about a national and international copyright
crackdown.

"I don't think there's a lot of controversy," Berman said on Wednesday.
"This one is not like the patent bill."

Groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Public Knowledge have
opposed the Pro-IP Act, saying it makes little sense to seize a family
computer allegedly used to download music on a peer-to-peer network and that
the legislation amounts to protecting the entertainment industry's business
model at the expense of technology.

"There are people who want to steal intellectual property," Berman said in
an apparent criticism of EFF and Public Knowledge. "Their lobby is
distributed, diffuse, but unfortunately very popular."

Berman dismissed the Justice Department's criticism of Pro-IP--the agency
believes the current arrangement for criminal enforcement works fine--as
merely protecting political turf. "They don't like Congress telling them how
to organize their branch, but that's our right," Berman said. "They take the
notion of executive privilege very seriously."

He also:

* Defended the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which has been the subject
of protests from technologists for nearly a decade: "I know the DMCA is
controversial--by and large I think it makes a lot of sense."

* Wondered whether Internet service providers should be required to pull the
plug on customers engaged in piratical activities: "To what extent do we ask
ISPs to (undertake) some affirmative actions?" The Motion Picture
Association of America has called on ISPs to do precisely that, without
saying it should be mandated by law; its international counterparts have not
been as reticent.

* Joked that as the new chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee
(after Rep. Tom Lantos' death), he'd support using military force against
countries that are piracy havens. Berman didn't say who would be the next
chairman of the House copyright subcommittee and refused to speculate on
whether Rick Boucher or Jerry Nadler would get the spot.