[Infowarrior] - Biden promises 'right person' as new U.S. copyright czar

[Richard Forno]

  April 21, 2009 10:00 PM PDT

Biden promises 'right person' as new U.S. copyright czar
by Declan McCullagh

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10224689-38.html

Vice President Joe Biden lauded Hollywood at a gala dinner in  
Washington, D.C. on Tuesday evening, assailed movie piracy, and  
promised film executives that the Obama administration would pick "the  
right person" as its copyright czar.

Just days after four Pirate Bay defendants were found guilty in  
Sweden, Biden warned of the harms of piracy at a private event  
organized by the Motion Picture Association of America in the  
sumptuous, newly renovated Great Hall of the National Portrait Gallery  
in Washington, D.C.

"It's pure theft, stolen from the artists and quite frankly from the  
American people as consequence of loss of jobs and as a consequence of  
loss of income," Biden said, according to a White House pool report.

Biden blasted China, saying its intellectual property laws remain  
"largely ineffective" and will end up "strangling their own creative  
juices," and compared it to what he described as India's more  
effective anti-piracy regime. He singled out Canada, a close U.S.  
ally, as needing stronger laws; it never signed the treaty that led to  
the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and a proposal to adopt anti- 
circumvention restrictions was never adopted.

He also addressed President Obama's forthcoming decision about who  
will be named the intellectual-property enforcement coordinator,  
better known as the copyright czar. Copyright industry lobbyists sent  
a letter Monday to the president asking him to pick someone  
sympathetic to their concerns, while groups that would curb copyright  
law sent their own letter urging the opposite approach.

We "will find the right person for intellectual property czar," Biden  
said.

Under a law approved by the U.S. Congress last October, Obama is  
required to appoint someone to coordinate the administration's IP  
enforcement efforts and prepare annual reports.

Senators attending the MPAA gala included Richard Durban (D-Illinois);  
Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.); Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), Judd Gregg (R- 
N.H.); Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota); Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont); Roger  
Wicker (R-Mississipi); and Ben Nelson (D-Nebraska).

An unspoken reason for the MPAA event--which included a symposium  
earlier in the day with remarks from top House Democrats and Commerce  
Secretary Gary Locke--was the loss of $246 million in tax breaks when  
the Senate revised the economic stimulus bill earlier this year. An  
MPAA report released Tuesday appears designed to avoid a repeat of  
that setback, listing the number of movies being filmed in each state.

Earlier in the day, Locke also talked up more government action  
against peer-to-peer piracy. "The recent revelation that an illegal  
copy of the upcoming movie "Wolverine" had been posted on the Internet  
prior to its theatrical release underscores the problem the industry  
faces...As a former prosecutor, I believe in the full and impartial  
enforcement of the law," he said.

On copyright, President Obama has signaled a more pro-industry  
approach than his predecessor, which has alarmed advocates of less  
restrictive laws.

The president chose as top Justice Department officials the music  
industry attorney who pulled the plug on Grokster and another longtime  
Recording Industry Association of America ligitator. The Obama  
administration recently sided with the RIAA in a file-sharing suit,  
and Biden was a staunch RIAA and MPAA ally as a U.S. senator.

"I think sometimes you underestimate the impact you have, and not just  
entertaining but uplifting," Biden told the audience at the MPAA  
event. "I wish I could inspire the way you do."