[opendtv] Re: Wright Issues Call To Copyright Action

I forget the details but after the printing press was invented one 
company in England (not Gutenberg) was awarded a monopoly on printing 
that lasted for about a hundred years.  It was only after they strongly 
lobbied to also control all book importing that there was a political 
backlash and they lost it.

This cycle may repeat.  ;-)

- Tom


Craig Birkmaier wrote:

> Add Bob Wright of NBC to the looooong list of entrenched media moguls 
> who want their friends in Congress to protect their dying business 
> model. Today Wright called on Congress to help the media moguls  in 
> their fight for copyright protection, saying that the Copyright 
> Clause (of the Constitution) is under "enormous pressure and requires 
> our vigilant attention."
> 
> I've got to agree with him. But the question is, where is the 
> enormous pressure coming from?
> 
> The big media conglomerates have been behind the gutting of the 
> intent of the Copyright clause of the constitution, with 11 changes 
> in the past century alone.
> 
> Talk about the pot calling the kettle black...
> 
> Regards
> Craig
> 
> 
> 
> Wright Issues Call To Copyright Action
> 
> By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 10/28/2004 11:42:00 AM
> 
> Add Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution to the freedoms NBC 
> Universal Chairman Robert Wright is intent on defending.
> 
> In Washington to accept a First Amendment award from the Media 
> Institute, Wright, the dean of network chiefs, sent a message to 
> legislators, regulators and whoever else was listening that his 
> company is ready to lead the fight for copyright protection, saying 
> the Copyright Clause is under "enormous pressure and requires our 
> vigilant attention."
> 
> Pointing to a recording industry "decimated by illegal downloads," he 
> said unrestricted digital copying threatened a $1.25 trillion 
> business--television, movies, publishing and software--"whose capital 
> is composed almost entirely of intellectual property," as well as the 
> sectors that support those industries or depend on them.
> 
> Together, they comprise 12% of the nation's GNP and 11 million jobs, 
> he said. "I don't think the government gets it," he said. But Wright 
> wasn't done tallying up the cost.
> 
>   "Add in the intellectual property components of other commercial 
> activity [the kinds his parent, GE, is involved in]...say, 
> pharmaceuticals, engineering, semiconductors, microtechnologies, and 
> its entirely likely that more than 20% of our national economy could 
> be traced to intellectual property of some sort. This is a very big 
> piece of the national pie to have at risk."
> 
> Wright also said it was a "terrible mistake" to assume that 
> intellectual property violations were a price or the necessary 
> byproduct of the transition to digital.
> 
> Wright said that technology, not legislation, is the best solution to 
> intellectual property theft, but he also said that government needed 
> to create "new rules of the road for the digital world...that 
> encourage technological progress yet at the same time uphold the 
> values that make commerce possible."
> 
> His suggestions:
> 
> 1. Support a house Judiciary Committee package of antipiracy bills  
> "currently in limbo".
> 
> 2. Find some compromise in the Senate Judiciary Committee on the 
> so-called induce legislation targeted at peer-to-peer file sharing.
> 
> 3. Support Attorney General John Ashcroft's proposed intellectual 
> property protection recommendations.
>  
>  
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