{"id":4585,"date":"2010-12-23T13:08:22","date_gmt":"2010-12-23T17:08:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/?p=4585"},"modified":"2010-12-23T13:08:22","modified_gmt":"2010-12-23T17:08:22","slug":"an-act-of-genuine-bipartisanship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/2010\/12\/23\/an-act-of-genuine-bipartisanship\/","title":{"rendered":"An Act of Genuine Bipartisanship"},"content":{"rendered":"

TechDirt notes<\/a> that the House is willing to bring back the Judiciary Committee’s IP Subcommittee – which was closed two years ago – \u00c2\u00a0now that a Hollywood-friendly Representative will be chairing it:<\/p>\n

[N]ow that the Republicans have retaken control over the House, and after [Virginia Rep.] Rick Boucher lost his re-election campaign, suddenly, magically, the Judiciary Committee has decided to bring the IP subcommittee back to life.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Why? \u00c2\u00a0Well, Rick Boucher has been one of the very few voices in Congress representing the public’s interest<\/a> in reforming our ridiculous copyright laws<\/a>, and most of Congress couldn’t be bothered to do anything besides nod in agreement while taking checks from the MPAA and RIAA. \u00c2\u00a0They simply didn’t want to jeopardize such an easy flow of money:<\/p>\n

The timing of all this makes the reasoning pretty clear. The IP subcommittee was around for ages, when it was under the control of those who represented the industry. When a reformer is finally in position to be put in charge, the subcommittee is killed and its duties are handed over to the larger committee (controlled by someone who represents the industry). Then, as soon as the reformer is out, the subcommittee comes back? Congress at it’s most shameful: a pretty clear indication that Congressional decisions on intellectual property are driven by the industry. This is how regulatory capture works.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Neither the Republican nor Democratic Party can be trusted to represent the public on IP matters. But coming together in service of Hollywood and the BigPharma? That’s bipartisanship they can believe in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TechDirt notes that the House is willing to bring back the Judiciary Committee’s IP Subcommittee – which was closed two years ago – \u00c2\u00a0now that a Hollywood-friendly Representative will be chairing it: [N]ow that the Republicans have retaken control over the House, and after [Virginia Rep.] Rick Boucher lost his re-election campaign, suddenly, magically, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-law","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t