Slashdot Mirror
U.S. to Get New IP Czar
tetraminoe writes "Reuters is reporting that Congress's latest spending bill provides for the creation of a federal copyright enforcement czar. According to the article, 'Under the program, 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.' It also gives $2 million to the National Intellectual Property Law Enforcement Coordination Council (NIPLAC), created in the '90s and never funded. NIPLAC will work to protect American IP overseas and oversee enforcement."
This is a good example of the political reality that if you have a big enough lobbyist you can actually get a branch of government creates to benefit you and only you.
Usually in George Bush's America if you have an industry that needs some money you go invade a country and hire that country to administer the post hillarity era. But in the case of movies and music, we can't actually force people to listen or watch it at gunpoint, yet. So we have to create a special branch of the Federal government, like the FCC for example which is specifically dedicated to insuring that you use the approved products and only the approved products and services.