BookBlog

Orrin Hatch, Piracy, and Fair Use

Blogger Ed Cone talked to Rep. Rick Boucher, a Virginia representative who focuses on technology policy. Boucher says that the Hatch vigilante proposal would find limited support in congress. “Such a message would never be reported from committee, and if it made it past a filibuster in the Senate, we’d kill it in the House. The potential for targeting innocent computer users is enormous. It’s a nuclear option to a problem with other solutions.”

Part of Boucher's message was disappointing.

Boucher advises the recording industry to invest “real money” in a marketing campaign for the concept of copyright law. “$100 million is peanuts to them, and they’ve got the best communicators in the world. They need to be on TV and radio, with performers selling the value of copyright – it’s not a complicated message, but word is not getting through. People think it’s an antiquated notion, but the industry can explain why people should get paid for their work.”

We don't just need advertising about copyright law.

We need public interest education about fair use. Customers have fair use rights to back-up, timeshift, space shift, copy snippets, and more.

As one of the proponents of the Digital Media Consumer Rights Act, which asserts these fair use rights in federal law, Boucher should be advocating public education about fair use as well.

Posted by alevin at June 19, 2003 11:03 PM | TrackBack

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