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Senator Applauds Pirate Bay Trial, Chides Canada
eldavojohn writes "Republican Senator Orrin Hatch spoke Tuesday at the World Copyright Summit in Washington DC and hailed the Pirate Bay guilty verdict as an important victory. He expressed severe disappointment in Canada for showing up on our watch list for piracy next to China and Russia. Senator Hatch also said, 'In fact, one study reports that each year, copyright piracy from motion pictures, sound recordings, business and entertainment software, and video games costs the US economy $58 billion in total output, costs American workers 373,375 jobs and $16.3 billion in earnings, and costs federal, state, and local governments $2.6 billion in tax revenue. During this time of economic turmoil, we must ensure that all copyrighted works, both here and abroad, are protected from online theft and traditional physical piracy. After all, US copyright-based industries continue to be one of America's largest and fastest-growing economic sectors.' GamePolitics notes that for his 2006 campaign, Hatch was rented for $7,000 by the RIAA and also got on his knees for $12,640 from the MPAA."
/checks record for the last decade
You're right, it's not "insightful". It's "blindingly obvious reality". Torture, domestic spying that would have gotten Clinton shot, going from a budget surplus to doubling the debt to $10 trillion, lied us into a war, destoyed the economy, etc. And the Republic party supported him every step of the way.
I can't believe he admitted it. "After all, US copyright-based industries continue to be one of America's largest and fastest-growing economic sectors."
Next thing you know he'll say, "And if they won't buy our opium, we will sail our ironclads right into their harbours and open up their markets, whether they like it or not."
+1 for the Opium Wars reference. Most people don't realize jolly old England went to war to sell its drugs and buy its tea.
But Hatch is right as well. All America really has these days is its intellectual property rights. We design and engineer a product here, then we send it over to China to make it for us. Or we design and engineer a pop singer, and have China press copies of their DVDs and CDs for us. China is bad enough as it is - if there were no IP laws at all (or whatever anarchistic fantasy world the Pirate Bay people are living it), America's economy would go belly-up.
Accelerando by Charlie Strauss is a great work of fiction, and the early bit of the book argues this point very well, though from the opposite point of view (the main character argues we should move to a total freedom hippie society).
Some things the Senator needs to understand:
1/ Other countries are INDEPENDENT and the United States has no authority to dictate to them.
This is an interesting claim; it sounds very much like what Iran, North Korea, and the previous U.S. administration believe[d]. We're an independent country, we can pursue nukes, torture, and whatnot, and no other country has the authority to dictate to us.