Rich Fiscus
21 Nov 2007 12:47
A letter from Washington D.C. based lobbying organization the Copyright Alliance to 17 Democratic and Republican U.S. Presidential candidates asks them to support "meaningful copyright protection." The letter, sent on Tuesday, also includes a short questionnaire that the lobbyists ask each candidate to fill out and return to them.
As you would expect from a group that lobbies on behalf of both RIAA and MPAA members, as well as major software and related companies such as Microsoft and the Business Software Alliance, the Copyright Alliance wants candidates to place greater emphasis on copyright enforcement both domestically and abroad. One question asks "How would you protect the incentive to create by committing sufficient resources to support effective civil and criminal enforcement of copyright laws domestically and internationally?"
Another question posed by the group is "How would you promote the progress of science and creativity, as enumerated in the U.S. Constitution, by upholding and strengthening copyright law and preventing its diminishment?" As it happens this is one of the areas where consumer groups and copyright holders often disagree. Extensions to copyright terms, including those from the Copyright Term Extension Act enacted nearly a decade ago, have sparked criticism that they have the opposite effect the framers of the U.S. Constitution intended when they gave Congress the responsibility "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for Limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries." This passage, commonly known as the Copyright Clause, is the legal basis for all U.S. intellectual property law, including the rules for copyrights and patents.
You can find both the letter and questionnaire in PDF format on the Copyright Alliance website.