Hollywood gets anti-p2p czar
p2pnet.net News:- With Alberto Gonzales of torture ‘May Be Justified’ fame as the new US attorney general, America is soon to also have a federal copyright enforcement czar to officially look after the entertainment industry’s business interests and work against p2p file sharers.
Under a “massive $388 billion spending bill Congress approved during the weekend” the president can appoint a copyright law enforcement officer whose job is to coordinate law enforcement efforts aimed at stopping international copyright infringement and to oversee a federal umbrella agency responsible for administering intellectual property law, says the Hollywood Reporter.
The legislation is part of the bill funding Justice Department operations and for the first time funds the National Intellectual Property Law Enforcement Coordination Council, says the story, continuing ominously:
“NIPLAC is charged with establishing policies, objectives and priorities designed to protect American intellectual property overseas and to coordinate and oversee implementation of intellectual property law enforcement throughout the government. While NIPLAC has been around since the early 1990s, it has never done anything, and appropriators hope that giving the organization $2 million and a new charter will make the office effective.”
A recent congressional attempt to approve the Pirate Act, which would allow the DoJ to file civil lawsuits, was “turned back over complaints that it would advance Hollywood’s interest at taxpayer expense,” says the Hollywood Reporter, quoting Gigi Sohn, president of Public Knowledge, as saying:
“This isn’t the Pirate Act, but I think the taxpayers would be surprised that there’s money being spent for copyright enforcement when terrorists and criminals still roam the streets. When every dollar is being counted for education, health care and homeland security, it seems like a strange priority.”
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See:-
Alberto Gonzales – Justice Dept. Memo Says Torture ‘May Be Justified’, Washington Post, June 13, 2004
$388 billion - Lawmakers OK anti-piracy czar, Hollywood Reporter, November 23, 2004
