Hatch out, Specter in
p2pnet.net News:- Speaking of INDUCE and Orrin Hatch, here’s an interesting /. item
Read on >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
[posting anonlymously because I'm a senate staffer]
Something worth mentioning – Sen. Hatch is outgoing chair of the Senate Judiciary committee. GOP rules limit chairmanships to 6 years, and his time is up. Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania is likely to be chairman in the next congress.
There have been rumors that Hatch is pushing to reconstitute the intellectual property subcommittee, but even with a subcommittee chair he’ll be alot less powerful next session than he is now. He could push bills out of his subcommittee and have them bottled in the full committee, or significantly modified during full committee markup.
Specter isn’t known for being in touch with IT/IP issues. This is a double edged sword. As committee chair he’s likely to give significant leeway to Hatch on IP issues in order to focus on investigations and other legislation. Conversely, without strongly stated public views on copyright/IP issues, Specter will probably be receptive to lobbying. If the EFF/OSDN/Sun/Others effectively represent their issues, they’ll be much better off with Chairman Specter than Chairman Hatch. If they blow it — 6 more years of the same.
A few wrinkles – Specter is up for election and may end up losing his seat. Also, Sen. Grassley is second in seniority on the Judiciary committee. Senators can only chair one committee at a time, and conventional beltway wisdom is that Sen. Grassley will not relinquish his current chairmanship (Finance) in order to take Judiciary, leaving it to Specter.
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So far this year, Specter’s political coffers have been enriched by the entertainment industry to the tune of $305,400.
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See:-
INDUCE – Josh Wattles on INDUCE, p2pnet, September 22, 2004
outgoing chair – Hatch is out – slashdot, October 8, 2004
$305,400 – RIAA collapses INDUCE talks, p2pnet, October 8, 2004
