Pro-copyright lobbyists storm Capitol Hill

WASHINGTON--Prominent champions of tougher copyright enforcement from the entertainment, media and publishing industries took over a stately Capitol Hill caucus room on Thursday, staging an expo aimed at playing up the legal protections' importance to their livelihood.

(Credit: Anne Broache/CNET News.com)

The event was put on by the Copyright Alliance, which formed earlier this year to promote the "vital role" of copyright in the U.S. economy and job market, encourage inclusion of copyright protection requirements in trade agreements, urge tougher civil and criminal penalties for piracy, and dissuade any weakening of copyright law. Its 42 members include heavy hitters like the Recording Industry Association of America, the Association of American Publishers, the Motion Picture Association of America, Microsoft, Viacom, NBC Universal and Walt Disney.

Most of the major players had booths at Thursday's shindig, and some of their messages were hardly subtle.

The RIAA hung wrinkled T-shirts that read in bold print: "feed a musician, download legally."

The RIAA's wearable campaign

(Credit: Anne Broache/CNET News.com)

The Entertainment Software Association, which represents video game and console makers, had a Nintendo Wii on hand for passers-by to test and decorated its booth with a huge poster that screamed in menacing capital letters: "Game Over Pirates Game Over."

The ESA's booth

(Credit: Anne Broache/CNET News.com)

Chuck Brown (left), Isaac Hayes and David Porter sign autographs for a Capitol policeman.

(Credit: Anne Broache/CNET News.com)

Aside from the small crowd gathered around the ESA's Wii at any given time, the most popular set-up belonged to Broadcast Music Inc., better known as BMI, which collects performance license fees on behalf of more than 350,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers. On hand to sign autographs and chat with fans who stopped by were Chuck Brown, known as the "Godfather of GoGo" (a Washington D.C. breed of funk music, for those not in the know); Isaac Hayes, the famed soul singer who wrote the score for Shaft and, until last year, supplied the voice of South Park's Chef; and David Porter, a soul musician and Hayes' songwriting partner.

And of course, the two-hour event wouldn't have been complete without an appearance from a politico. (It was a bit surprising that more politicians didn't make the rounds, but, in fairness, that may have been because the House of Representatives wasn't in session Thursday because of Rep. Jo Ann Davis' funeral, and the Senate has been on recess all week.)

Rep. John Conyers

(Credit: Anne Broache/CNET News.com)

Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, which handles copyright law, showed up briefly to pat the organizers on the back. "When you walk into this room, a copyright becomes real," he said.

He also spoke vaguely about a bill his office is putting together over the next few weeks to "bring together" the nine federal agencies that currently handle intellectual property enforcement in some manner. (Update 2:35 p.m. PDT: His office wasn't able to provide more details this afternoon.)

Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.), the pro-Hollywood chairman of a House intellectual property panel, had also been scheduled to speak but was a no-show.

The Bush administration's coordinator for international intellectual property, Chris Israel, made a brief appearance as well. (He's the one who declared U.S. copyright law is a-OK after a $222,000 damage award and guilty verdict transpired in the now-infamous case involving a Minnesota resident and the recording industry.) He told expo attendees his office has witnessed a "tremendous increase" in federal intellectual property enforcement over the past few years and predicted that trend will only continue.

[nicmart]

Conyers

The transformation of John Conyers: from Marxist flack to industry
flack. From "fight the power," to "keep in power with campaign
contributions."

[Bud5000]

The T-Shirt Rocks

As a musician who uses the RIAA Soup Kitchen on Bleecker and 7th Avenue, I appreciate their concern, as evidenced by the T-Shirt displayed in the article. It's a shame I won't see Madonna, Radiohead, or Trent Reznor at the soup kitchen anymore. You mean, there are other ways to feed musicians?

[The Kim]

Lifetimes of protection

I fully accept that the authors should be awarded, but I do not understand why copyright should be used to protect an industry.

The 70 years of copyright protection after the death of the author of a really original work of art may seem fair, if the author was some bleeding heart poet, not earning any money during his own lifetime- Then, at least his neglected wife and children might profit.

However, this is not what copyright is used for nowadays. No, it's used to protect a billion dollar industry, whitch itself believes to have a special right to protect itself against competitors and even their own potential customers, because what they do is "art".

All other industry also fight fiercely but they do not have copyright.

All other industry do not fight their own potential customers - they fight their competitors.

[JadedGamer]

I am pro copyright

... meaning a limited (10-20 years) monopoly after the creation of a work, before it enters the public domain.

I am anti the industry-serving mutant beast the lobbyists like RIAA and MPAA have created.