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."

Comments

Re:American Imperialsm w/ Entertainment Media?

[The Empiricist]

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."

Why can't you believe that he "admitted" that it is in the economic interests of the United States to ensure that its copyright-based industries continue to develop? He is a Senator. His job is to identify and protect the interests of the citizens of the United States. That is what all legislators are supposed to do. There is a lot of debate as to what those interests are and how to protect them, but it would seem silly to sponsor legislation and then pretend that no one's interests are being protected.

What is sad is how frequently remarks made by politicians are isolated and magnified to overly simplify their positions. In those same set of remarks, Senator Hatch talks about the problem of orphan works:

I also continue to be very active on passing orphan works legislation.

Last year, the Senate unanimously passed bipartisan legislation to encourage the use of orphan works - works that may be protected by copyright but whose owners cannot be identified or located. Countless artistic creations - books, photos, paintings and music - around the country are effectively locked away and unavailable for the general public to enjoy because the owner of the copyright for the work is unknown.

Unfortunately, it often isn't easy to identify or find these owners of copyrighted work. To make matters worse, many are discouraged or reluctant to use these works out of fear of being sued should the owner eventually step forward.

For years, I have been working with industry stakeholders and copyright experts, including Marybeth Peters, Register of Copyrights, to pass orphan works legislation. The bill seeks to unite users and copyright owners, and to ensure that copyright owners are compensated for the use of their works. I couldn't agree more with Register Peters when she said, "A solution to the orphan works problem is overdue and the pending legislation is both fair and responsible."

You may not agree with every position that the Senator makes, but an interpretation of his positions that is driven by something more than just sound-bites shows that he is interested in protecting more than just the interests of copyright owners. Finding the best ways of protecting the interests of copyright owners, content producers, distributors, consumers, technological innovators, etc. is a challenging task. Oversimplification of the issues based on the perspective of one interest group doesn't make the task any easier.

Re:Not a Loss

[HockeyPuck]

How many would have bought the movie/game if you could NOT download it? I know of plenty of people that download games/movies because they don't believe they are worth it to buy them. How many people avoid going to the movie in the theater because "I'd rather download it for FREE than spend $20 to see it in the movies".

So if Terminator 4 was downloaded 1million times in the US, one could say that it cost the $18million ($18 for the DVD) plus the government $1,260,000 in taxes (assuming 7% taxes).

$1.26m buys a lot of textbooks for schools.

The people that do the most complaining about this ("I should have it for free, let someone else pay for it!") are those that don't have any Intellectual Property that they would like to profit from.

Re:OK republican shills

[Moryath]

Yep. Congress's approval ratings are still lower than Bush's lowest presidential ratings, but because they have Chicago Obama in the White House, they think they can do whatever they want.

Elect a corrupt chicago-style politician, get a corrupt chicago-style white house.

Say what you will about politics otherwise - I prefer when our system is working as intended, and the checks and balances come from competing interests balancing each other out. Let one party get hold of House, Senate, and Presidency all at once, and you get crap like the bailouts, the Sotomayor appointment, and Comrade Obama's Super-Magical Miracle Snake Oil "health care reform."

Re:makes me proud to be a canadian

[T Murphy]

I'm not about to praise Bush for anything, but please drop the "lied us into war" nonesense. Intel from multiple countries indicated WMDs and Saddam acted every bit like he had them. People saying Bush knew there were no WMDs sound just like any other conspiracy theorists, given I haven't seen anything beyond speculation. Did Bush want war because of WMDs or oil? I guess you'd have to ask him on that one, but the WMDs were the reason for the coalition. You don't need to stretch facts to make the guy look bad, so why make yourself look bad in the process?