RSSVP Biden promises movie industry to step up search for IP czar
By Scott M. Fulton, III | Published April 22, 2009, 6:15 PM
According to an account from a pool reporter assigned to Vice President Biden yesterday, and covered in its entirety by Time Magazine's Mark Halperin, Mr. Biden told a Washington gathering of both senior senators and motion picture industry leaders that he plans to accelerate the search for an Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator (IPEC).
Though the role has been treated as a creation of the Obama administration, it was President Bush who signed into law last October the controversial PRO-IP Act, stepping up enforcement provisions against intellectual property infringement and piracy, and creating the role Mr. Biden likes to refer to as a "czar." But it was Biden himself who coined the usage of the term "czar" to apply to policy leaders with authority over specific issues, who report directly to the President -- in this case, in 1982 when then-Senator Biden helped create a drug policy enforcement administrator.
"[I have a] simple message from the President and from me: We get it. We understand the immense value of your films and all of your art, and its effect on the economy, and, I might add, on the national character," the pool reporter quotes Mr. Biden as telling the audience, gathered to bestow an award in the name of the late MPAA Chairman Jack Valenti. Piracy, the Vice President added, is "pure theft, stolen from the artists and quite frankly from the American people as consequence of loss of jobs and, as a consequence, of loss of income."
The Vice President's language on IP issues is not new, having told The Hollywood Reporter two years ago he feels that piracy is "theft, plain and simple," just as if someone stole one's wallet.
![US Vice President Joseph R. Biden. [White House photo]](http://images.betanews.com/media/3173.jpg "US Vice President Joseph R. Biden. [White House photo]")
Mr. Biden specifically promised to give more leverage to the FBI to investigate cases of suspected piracy, and to the Justice Dept. to prosecute those cased, according to the pool report. That may actually end up being difficult, thanks to the final language of the PRO-IP bill itself. Although it authorizes law enforcement officials to seize property in conjunction with piracy investigations and then to destroy that property, for whatever reason, the IPEC will not have the authority to oversee these actual enforcement operations. That's for the Justice Dept.; the IPEC will be an independent authority.
Recently, the Obama administration has made headlines for appointing five attorneys to key Justice Dept. positions, who have not only represented the MPAA in the past but are also from the same law firm. Most notably among them is Donald Verrilli, Jr., the lead prosecutor in MGM v. Grokster.
Motion picture industry leaders and MPAA lobbyists are on hand in Washington this week for the industry's biannual summit. Kicking off the events yesterday, the MPAA released a report on the contribution of the movie industry to the US economy. Over $41 billion in wages were paid to movie makers in all 50 states in 2008, with average salaries of $75,000 per year, the report reads -- data points that the Vice President indicated he read yesterday: "That Hollywood sign shadow stretches all the way across America. You provide jobs that a middle class family can live on."
[Photo of Vice President Biden by White House photographers.]
So what lie is compuslive liar Biden telling now?
Maybe they should hold a meeting to discuss the addition to the bureaucracy in the long defunct Katy's diner...
Or just appoint Al Gore - who better to understand the challenges of IP than the one who invented the Internet...
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|How much you want to bet that people who pirate movies and music will soon be Water Boarded and sent to a secret camp?
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|Gee, and in the attempt to politically continue their campaign against the former administration, they delete the results in the ONLY 3 uses of waterboarding where real info WAS gained and a threat against Los Angeles subverted.
Seeing as how its use WAS extremely limited, and that is WAS extremely effective in obtaining crucial intel, perhaps they should employ waterboarding on the current admin!
But isn't it quaint how the Obama admin skews the released docs censoring that which proves their contentions nonsensical and then embarrasses themselves by reversing their position regarding legal recourse 3 times already "we won't", "we will", "we won't"
I am only surprised that Bill Ayers and his squeeze Bernadine Dorne weren't put on the talk show rounds to justify their FU.
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|Clearly it's proving increasingly difficult to persuade people to watch most of the "art" produced by Hollywood. However, I am not convinced that a strategies suing people into doing so will prove effective...
Maybe they should try to convince people that watching movies (now matter how badly madeor banal) is green and that not doing so is unamerican....
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|"Clearly it's proving increasingly difficult to persuade people to watch most of the "art" produced by Hollywood."
Clearly? Is it the record theater attendance? The record DVD sales?
*laughing*
I love hearing this bit. Selective reality is such a great source of comic material.
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|Just what we need another czar.
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|I was thinking the same thing. Just more layers on the bulls*** pizza that is Washington DC.
Imperial Russia would be proud.
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|electing Obama was a huge mistake, not that the alternative was any better... we're all going to get screwed, piracy levels the playing field...
think about it, without piracy, how much would we be paying to see Movies, buy CDs/DVDs etc and iTunes probably wouldn't even exist or Hulu
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|Are you actually implying piracy is keeping prices *down*?
I don't think I've ever heard that one before... I would love to hear the logic behind that one.
Is it like the MSFT bit about lowering prices in China to try and "reduce" piracy, or some other factor?
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|well, it may of kept prices down... but there is one thing piracy and the internet did and that was force the industry to come up with 'new' or the same ideas/ideals pirates had, and innovate
i'd put money on the fact that if piracy wasn't happening, there would be no Hulu, etc and if there was, you would probably be paying for it :D
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|The only thing that can save the movie industry is BETTER MOVIES! Period. Stop blaming pirates. I've had a satellite dish since 1984. The movies that are good are so far and few between anymore I've dropped all movie channels I used to subscribe to.
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|"The only thing that can save the movie industry is BETTER MOVIES!"
Record attendance in theaters, record DVD sales, record piracy...
Yeah, these movies must *really* suck...
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|Recently, the Obama administration has made headlines for appointing five attorneys to key Justice Dept. positions, who have not only represented the MPAA in the past but are also from the same law firm.
Imagine if Bush had done this. Hell, imagine if Bush had even attempted half of what Obama's gotten away with. Meanwhile nearly half a million Americans take to the streets protesting bailouts, and 99% of the media either ignores them or labels them racists(???). I only wish the Tea Parties had started before W left office..then it would've been a lead story for a month. Of course, they won't be able to ignore the next gathering. Nobody will.
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|When is that? Sept. 12th at the capital building, right?
Could be interesting, could be a nightmare. Things are getting interesting....
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|"Piracy, the Vice President added, is "pure theft, stolen from the artists and quite frankly from the American people as consequence of loss of jobs and, as a consequence, of loss of income."
--> Get a lawyer. Get educated.
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|What's the number of that website again, Joe?
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