Lessig: IP Reform? Fuggedaboutit
Now that Democrats have won control of Congress, one might have expected intellectual property law reform to take place. Creative Commons backer and noted law professor Lawrence Lessig says it won't happen.
Those who expected otherwise probably forgot that Democratic President Bill Clinton signed the despised Digital Millennium Copyright Act into law after its unanimous passage in the Senate.
Lessig observed what most people who follow politics have long known: the more things change, the more they stay the same. He described the potential for true IP reform taking place in two words - fat chance:
...the crucial House IP subcommittee will be chaired by Hollywood Howard (Berman) - among the most extreme of the IP warriors. It is this committee that largely determines what reform Congress considers. It is the Chairman who picks what voices get heard. And while Berman is a brilliant man - whose brilliance could really have been used in the problems facing the mid-east - his brilliance has not yet been directed towards working out the problems of IP and the Net with any view beyond the narrowest of special interests.
When considering a given politician's likely stance on an issue, it's always instructive to find out who has been a valuable contributor to that politician's election/re-election efforts. In short, follow the money, which we can do thanks to the efforts of OpenSecrets.org.
Individual contributors listed for Representative Berman read like a who's who of Hollywood power brokers: David Geffen, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Steven Spielberg. Not the sorts of people one expects to find wearing Creative Commons t-shirts.
And of course the cursory peek at the top industries supporting Berman over the years shows two overwhelming support groups for him: TV/Movies/Music and Lawyers/Law Firms. Nothing else comes close.
"This is like making a congressman from Detroit head of a Automobile Safety sub-committee, or a senator from Texas head of a Global Warming sub-committee," Lessig wrote. "Are you kidding, Dems?"
They aren't kidding, Professor. Real reform in IP law will have to wait for real reform in politics. Maybe you should ask your fellow Californians why they keep sending a guy who's made statements like these back to DC again and again.
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Tag: IP Reform
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