[Infowarrior] - Senate panel approves DoJ as Hollywood copyright cops

[Richard Forno]

Senate Panel Approves Bill To Make The Justice Dep't Hollywood's  
Private Police Force

We were just talking about how a huge number of public interest groups  
had explained to the Senate why the new Enforcement of Intellectual  
Property Rights Act was a such terrible idea since it would add a  
Copyright Czar in the White House and let the FBI file civil charges  
against people caught infringing on copyrights. After all, there's  
simply no logical explanation for why the FBI should be propping up  
the obsolete business model of an industry that refuses to change with  
the market.

However, it appears that public interest groups don't fund campaigns  
like the entertainment industry does. The Senate Judiciary Committee  
has gone ahead and approved moving the bill forward by a 14-4 margin,  
basically handing over Justice Department resources to Hollywood to  
protect its business model with no real justification.

The bill's sponsor, Sen. Patrick Leahy's explanation is pretty  
stunning in its ignorance:

     "We all know that intellectual property makes up some of the most  
valuable, and most vulnerable, property we have. We need to do more to  
protect it from theft and abuse if we hope to continue being a world  
leader in innovation."

Can someone send him a copy of Against Intellectual Monopoly so he can  
understand how nearly every part of that sentence is wrong. First off,  
intellectual property, despite the name, is not "property" at all.  
It's also not "vulnerable" except if you mean that there are better  
business models out there for dealing with. He gives no convincing  
reason why we should "protect" it, other than a factually untrue  
statement about "theft," when infringement and theft are two totally  
different things and should be dealt with in two totally different  
ways. Finally, studies have shown that the more "protected" IP is, the  
less innovation results, so his final clause is simply backwards. This  
bill will serve to limit American innovation, and open up more foreign  
innovation instead. But, as long as it means the RIAA doesn't need to  
innovate...

http://techdirt.com/articles/20080911/1804242241.shtml