President Bush may be having second thoughts, but that isn’t stopping the Department of Commerce from lobbying for a copyright czar.
David Kravets of Threat Level is reporting on an interesting development in the PRO-IP legislation currently sitting in front of president Bush, waiting for his signature. The last we heard, the president was contemplating vetoing the bill, saying that it would violate the constitutional separation of powers.
Entering the issue now is the Department of Commerce. They suggest that so-called “intellectual property piracy” has cost 750,000 jobs as well as a quarter of a trillion dollars annually (PDF – hosted by Wired). As Kravets reports, exactly where the numbers come from is quite a mystery. From his report:
A spokesman for the Chamber of Commerce said Friday that the nation’s largest business lobbying group obtained the figure from “several federal government departments and agencies,” including the U.S. Department of Commerce.
In an e-mail, chamber spokesman Alex Burgos provided a link to a Sept. 21, 2005 statement from then-Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez citing the 750,000 figure.
The U.S. Department of Commerce, however, said Friday that it obtained the number from the Chamber of Commerce. “That information was provided by the Chamber of Commerce,” Emily Lawrimore, a U.S. Department of Commerce spokeswoman, said in a telephone interview. “That’s where we received the information from.”
The 750,000 figure is repeated on the Chamber of Commerce’s website section on intellectual property, but cites the office of U.S. Customs and Border Protection as the source.
The development is interesting for two reasons. The first being that Canadians reading this story might have a sense of nostalgia from back in 2006 when the copyright industry operating in Canada suggested, while lobbying for an anti-camcording law, that a large portion of world-wide piracy originated from Canada. A portion which was 15%… no, actually, 20-30%… check that, 40%… no, I really mean 50%… wait, scrub that, 60%! Yes, 70% is the actual number, a whopping 75% of world-wide piracy originates from Canada! Isn’t it disturbing that 20-30% of piracy happens in Canada with over 70% happening in Asia? Obviously, using blatantly falsified numbers isn’t exactly new to the industry.
The other reason this development is interesting is what was noted by a commenter on the blog who goes by the name of Tom C. He suggests that this seems very similar to the tactics used to pass the $700 billion dollar bailout plan – though the validity of the evidence behind the push to bail out American financial institutions would arguably be quite different.
Already, the Department of Justice was infuriated with the idea of acting pro-bono for the copyright industry – echoing major criticisms over the idea of getting tax payers to foot the bill for any money spent in the Recording Industry Associations lawsuit campaign.
Exactly how this will affect the decision making process for the president is unclear at this time, though many are hoping that he will use his veto powers to strike this legislation. It certainly won’t improve an already battered public image of the current president if this were to be passed.
Further reading:
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- Chamber of Commerce: ‘Interference With Copyright Laws = Marxism’
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- Bush Signs Law Creating ‘PiracyCzar’
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