Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), author of the now-defunct Induce Act and powerful supporter of the entertainment industry, has been named the head of a new subcommittee on intellectual property.

While some of the goals of the committee seem beneficial (like addressing concerns about phishing, pharming, and other forms of electronic fraud), there are already indications that committee’s efforts to protect the content industry and big business may come at the expense of technological innovation:

In a statement, Hatch declared that the panel would have an “aggressive agenda” and highlighted the issue of patent reform, saying, “We need strong patent protection to give incentives for innovation and economic growth.”

Hatch has consistently espoused expansion of copyright protections, especially to curtail file sharing of copyrighted material. During a June 2003 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on copyright abuse, he even suggested that copyright enforcement should include the destruction of private property:

If we can find some way to do this without destroying their machines, we’d be interested in hearing about that. If that’s the only way, then I’m all for destroying their machines. If you have a few hundred thousand of those, I think people would realize the seriousness of their actions.
[About.com]

Although he later tempered his comments by saying that extreme action would be necessary if no moderate action could be found, there is little doubt that his attitude toward copyright policy and corporate pandering will carry over into this new-formed committee.

However, as long as campaigns like Save the iPod deliver incisive blows to bad pieces of legislation, and as long as consumers and citizens voice their rights and interests, then terrible decisions by our lawmakers can always be reversed.

After all, part of the reason why legislation like the DMCA passes is that the average citizen and generally most Senators and Congressmen don’t understand how damaging anti-infringement/anti-piracy laws can be to other facets of technology. Or that more reasonable patent laws, instead of more stringent ones, can be enacted without hurting businesses and the economy. And the list goes on. So Free Culture advocates, keep a lookout and be sure your voices are heard!

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 19th, 2005 at 4:41 pm and is filed under Commentary, Copyright, U.S.. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.