p2pnet news view | P2P | Politics:- Another anti-P2P hard-liner has been appointed to high office in the Obama administration.

In a move praised, surprisingly, by Public Knowledge president and co-founder Gigi B. Sohn, Victoria Espinel has been nominated as America’s new IP czar, or Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator, as she’ll be officially known.

In 2005 Espinel, became the first assistant US trade rep for, “intellectual property and innovation, serving as chief U.S. trade negotiator on IP issues before the World Trade Organization,” says Variety.

AllofMP3.com was a tiny Russian music download site targeted by the US trade representative office under George W. Bush, at the behest of the entertainment cartels.

In 2007, “as negotiations progress over Russia’s joining the WTO, the country still needs to shut down and prosecute owners of ‘illegal Web sites’ operating in Russia, including Allofmp3’s successors,” Espinel said, according to CNET News.

A year earlier, “Overseas, U.S. government officials say, it is in the national interest to work on behalf of Hollywood and other entertainment and intellectual property industries,” the Washington Post said, going on:

“The United States does not offer specific dictates on how other nations handle their border controls, said Assistant U.S. Trade sRepresentative Victoria Espinel.”

But, “they need to have an effective intellectual property system for protecting our rights holders abroad’,” she said in the story.

Now, “Espinel’s nomination, which had been rumored for months, has come with some wariness among some in the technology community, who have even characterized the move as a way for Hollywood to protect a dying business model,” says Variety in a considerable understatement, adding:

“But under the Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act, passed with overwhelming support last year, Obama is required to appoint someone to coordinate the administration’s efforts in intellectual property protection, with the idea that such a point person in the executive branch could give counterfeit and piracy issues greater urgency. At a symposium sponsored by the Motion Picture Assn. of America in April, Vice President Joseph Biden pledged to find the ‘right person’ for the post.”

Biden is, of course,  an avowed devotee of the entertainment cartels.

Were that not enough to set alarm bells ringing loudly, “”We applaud President Obama’s decision today to nominate Victoria Espinel as the administration’s Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator,” says Hollywood’s Dan ‘The Joker’ Glickman, the man who runs the MPAA, the movie industry front organisation.

Stay tuned.

Follow p2pnet on Twitter.

Public Knowledge – Public Knowledge Pleased With ‘IP Czar’ Appointment, September 25, 2009
Variety – Espinel named ‘intellectual property czar’, September 25, 2009
at the behest – Hollywood Howard vs AllofMP3’s successors, October 22, 2007
CNET News – U.S. wants end to Allofmp3 spinoffs, October 18, 2007
year earlier – MPAA, RIAA, US team up, June 15, 2006
Washington Post – U.S. Joins Industry in Piracy War, June 15, 2006

---

Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. It’s really easy!
Subscribe to p2pnet.net | | rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss | | Mobile – http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.php

---

Net access blocked by government restrictions? Use Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. Go here for details.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 28th, 2009 at 9:32 am and is filed under P2P, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

HOME

Viewed 1334 times