The ’scourge of music piracy’: Gary Locke
2pnet view P2P | Politics:- “Thank you, Rob for that introduction — and for all the work you’ve done to bring attention to the scourge of music piracy.”
That’s entertainment cartel spokesman Gary Locke (right), who also doubles as the US commerce secretary.
Rob? Someone from Nashville who introduced Locke at the “Intellectual Property Enforcement” dog-and-pony show staged at the Belmont University, Nashville, Tennessee”, on Monday.
“Worldwide and certainly in the United States, consumers are spending less on recorded music in all formats”, he said on behalf of Vivendi Universal (France), Sony (Japan), EMI (Britain), and Warner Music (US, but controlled by a Canadian), going on:
“Compounding the problem is the fact that, like everyone else, Nashville has been dealing with the difficult crosscurrents in the global economy. And of course most recently, Nashville was flooded by the currents of the overflowing Cumberland River.”
Although “This flood is a challenge that the people of Nashville have faced with remarkable fortitude and determination”, there are “some things, like Mother Nature that you can’t control — you just have to deal with” Locke declared.
He got that right. But not in the context of working with the people instead of against them.
There are “other problems that we have within our power to solve”, he said, “And one of them is the rampant piracy of music, and of intellectual property, that are the lifeblood of this region’s economy.”
Enter another corporate entertainment industy stalwart, Joe Biden, whose second job is 2/ic of the United States of America.
“As Vice President Biden has said on more than one occasion, ‘Piracy is flat, unadulterated theft,’ and it should be dealt with accordingly” said Locke.
But “This isn’t just an issue of right and wrong”, he [Locke] said, going on >>>
This is a fundamental issue of America’s economic competitiveness.
As the president has said before, America’s ’single greatest asset is the innovation and ingenuity and creativity of the American people. It is central to our prosperity and it will only become more so in this century.’
Our founding fathers understood this as well as anyone, which is why they put in place a set of rules and laws to reward and protect the ideas and inventions of the artists, engineers and scientists who create them.
But this copyright and patent framework needs to evolve to meet the evolving challenges of the 21st century.
Recently, I’ve had a chance to read letters from award winning writers and artists whose livelihoods have been destroyed by music piracy. One letter that stuck out for me was a guy who said the songwriting royalties he had depended on to ‘be a golden parachute to fund his retirement had turned out to be a lead balloon.’
This just isn’t right.
And this administration is doing everything it can to ensure our creators and our innovators are compensated for the great work that they do.
From day one, the Obama administration has placed a strong focus on:
establishing global intellectual property norms,
promoting compliance with global norms; and
strengthening the international copyright system.
And I think that the Administration’s recent release of a Joint Strategic Plan by the newly created Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator reflects the depth of our commitment to curb intellectual property piracy both here and abroad.
This plan, which contained input from eight different federal agencies and over 1,600 public comments, has over 33 different discrete action items to ensure that everyone across the government is working together, and presenting a united front on the protection of intellectual property.
To take just one area that I know is important to this group, in our government-wide strategy, we endorsed and affirmatively encouraged the private sector – including content owners and Internet service providers – to work collaboratively to combat intellectual property infringement online.
Especially to combat repeat infringement.
While those cooperative efforts are underway, the Administration will continue to vigorously investigate and prosecute online criminal activity, and at the Commerce Department we will continue to press these issues in our dealings with foreign officials, like those in China.
To learn more about the challenges and opportunities facing America’s creative industries, the Department is also conducting a comprehensive review of the relationship among copyright policy, creativity, and innovation in the Internet economy.
The Internet is of course a double-edged sword for the music industry. On the one hand, online copyright infringement is a growing threat, with cyberlockers as well as peer-to-peer, file sharing, streaming and user generated content sites providing a constant challenge to the music industry.
But the Internet, if used correctly, can be a great growth engine. In the United States alone, sales of digital music downloads reached $3.1 billion in 2009, a 19 percent increase above the previous year.
At the Commerce Department, we are trying to figure out how we shut out the pirates, while preserving the Internet as an avenue for commerce for music and for other creative industries.
That’s why earlier this summer, the Department’s Patent and Trademark Office and our National Telecommunications and Information Administration hosted a conference that brought together representatives of the music industry and other content owners, Internet service providers, and public interest groups to help chart a new way forward.
In the very near future, the Department will be issuing a Notice of Inquiry, seeking public comment on the challenges of protecting copyrighted works on-line and the relationship between copyright law and innovation.
And I would invite any of you here today to throw in your two cents.
We’ll be using these comments to create a report that will help shape the administration-wide policy on copyright protection and innovation.
But the scourge of music piracy wasn’t all.
“I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention one other issue that I know is of serious concern to people in this room”, said Locke, adding:
“Under current copyright law, a traditional AM/FM radio broadcaster pays royalties to song writers for playing their songs but – under a decades’ old carve out — the other contributors to the recording – the artists, musicians, and record labels – are not compensated.
“In other words, if a radio station plays a Carole King/James Taylor duet – and Carole King wrote the song – Carole King gets paid a royalty, but there is nothing in existing law that says James Taylor has to get paid as well.”
Stay tuned.
Or not.
… and identi.ca
cartel spokesman – US comsec Gary Locke: copyright group leader, July 22, 2009
dog-and-pony show – Remarks at Intellectual Property Enforcement, Belmont University, Nashville, Tennessee, August 30, 2010
corporate entertainment industy stalwart – US hosts secret anti-P2P meeting, December 16, 2009
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September 2nd, 2010 at 6:52 am
Never heard so much twaddle in all my life, this guy should keep taking the pills and stop quoting false media industry studies that continue to mislead and aid in the defrauding of the US populace.
If politicians are truly concerned why dont they give those industry “donations” they receive to those poor starving artists, the rest of us have to work and save for our living and retirement.
September 3rd, 2010 at 9:41 am
There have always been times in the history of the world that countries have had strong economies and they did not rely on music sales to get that way.