Some conservatives expressed anger Tuesday on a quickly withdrawn brief on copyright by...
Some conservatives expressed anger Tuesday on a quickly withdrawn brief on copyright by a Republican Study Committee policy staffer, Derek Khanna, that called for comprehensive copyright reform (CD Nov 20 p8). Republicans on the conservative House caucus and elsewhere have…
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historically supported copyright protections, “and not because of big money special interests, because most of Hollywood’s and the recording industry’s political money flows in the other direction,” said Tom Giovanetti, president of the Institute for Policy Innovation, in an email blast. “You can’t have contracts, or licensing, if you don’t have clear and enforceable property rights,” and not just “new” business models, but all of them rely on property rights, he said. Khanna’s report is “jaw dropping” for its use of “much of the rhetoric … of the CopyLeft movement,” Giovanetti said. IPI was assured by the committee that the paper reflected “the views of a single” staffer and it was also written “in a very casual style that is not typical of finished and vetted policy papers,” he said. Netcompetition.org Chairman Scott Cleland said in an email blast that Congress and the Supreme Court from the nation’s founding have not misinterpreted the founding fathers’ views of property rights, as suggested in the brief. Khanna used “buzzword blackmail” pioneered by copyleft pioneer Larry Lessig by characterizing the “exclusive rights” of copyright as monopoly rather than property, Cleland said.