The fight against piracy has been an ugly and grueling battle ever since Napster shook the establishment back in the day. Since the fight between artists, and pirates (video game idea anyone?), this has now spilled over into the serious world of the government. Which in turn has led to the latest piece of legislation that will strengthen the federal involvement against piracy. For better or (in my mind) worse.

The first major part of the “Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights Act of 2008″, is to establish the Interagency Intellectual Property Enforcement Advisory Committee. Then of course it will be under the direct authority of the president to appoint the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator. This committee will be in charge of concocting the Joint Strategic Plan, which will help the fight against piracy and counterfeiting.

If you’d like to take a gander at the ‘Act’, and not take my word for it you can click here.

Doesn’t this all sound like the same song and dance that we’ve heard/seen before? And has it worked before? By song and dance I mean giving the federal branch of our government even more power in policing the wrongs of our country and world? This will more than likely lead to policies, and measures that shrink the freedoms of the American people even more. By freedoms I mean giving the government the right to seize any properties that have been used in alleged pirating (yes, there’s a part in the act for that).

But in the end, will it even solve the problem it’s going after? Sure there might be a few ‘property pirates’ nabbed here and there, but it doesn’t make the problem go away. It’s like trying to pick off a few pesky ants entering your house with a magnifying glass. Yes, there might be a few ants incinerated but the problem lies at the ant hill. Wow, that was a weird analogy.

There is one shining light in the this piece of legislation and it lies with the amendment, “Amends the Computer Crime Enforcement Act to allow existing grants to combat computer crime to be used for activities relating to infringement of copyrighted works over the Internet. Requires the Office of Justice Programs of the Department of Justice (DOJ) to make grants for training, prevention, enforcement, and prosecution of intellectual property theft and infringement crimes.”

It’s in this writer’s humble opinion that this is the extent that the bill should have been left at. Instead of utilizing tax payer’s dollars to police this by our government, how about helping companies fight it themselves? It’s going to be technology, and staying a step ahead that will help eradicate piracy. The research for these technologies is where the money should be going. Not a ‘Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator’, and his committee.

If you’re looking to those who sponsored the bill, here is a list of the Senate co-sponsors so you can write them accordingly:

Sen Alexander, Lamar [TN]
Sen Bayh, Evan [IN]
Sen Bond, Christopher S. [MO]
Sen Boxer, Barbara [CA]
Sen Brown, Sherrod [OH]
Sen Cardin, Benjamin L. [MD]
Sen Clinton, Hillary Rodham [NY]
Sen Corker, Bob [TN]
Sen Cornyn, John [TX]
Sen Feinstein, Dianne [CA]
Sen Graham, Lindsey [SC]
Sen Gregg, Judd [NH]
Sen Hatch, Orrin G. [UT]
Sen Hutchison, Kay Bailey [TX]
Sen Levin, Carl [MI]
Sen Schumer, Charles E. [NY]
Sen Smith, Gordon H. [OR]
Sen Specter, Arlen [PA]
Sen Stabenow, Debbie [MI]
Sen Voinovich, George V. [OH]
Sen Whitehouse, Sheldon [RI]

In case you George W. Bush haters out there were wanting to flock, know this… The Senate passed this by an unanimous decision of 100-0. The House voted on it with an overwhelming majority of 381 - 41, with one of the nays being Ron Paul (shameless political mention). I wonder if the MIAA, or RIAA had any say on the matter?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 14th, 2008 at 7:27 am and is filed under Internet. 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.