Recording Industry Takes Over DoJ Under Obama

[snot]

From http://www.boingboing.net/2009/02/10/riaa-takes-over-the.html :

RIAA takes Over the DoJ under Obama: Bad News for Copyfighters
Posted by Xeni Jardin, February 10, 2009 6:18 PM | permalink
Snip from a post by Alan Wexelblat on the alarming number of copyright maximalist lawyers being appointed by the Obama administration to the Department of Justice. Bad news for people who believe in copyright reform . . . . :

First off, there's the #3 man at Justice, Thomas Perrelli, accurately described by CNET as "beloved by the RIAA". Not only has this guy been on the wrong side in the courtroom, he's fingered as instrumental in convincing the Copyright Board to strangle Web radio in its crib by imposing impossible fee structures.

(snip)

Then there's the #2 man, currently slated to be David Ogden. If that name only rings a faint bell it's because you have to cast your mind back to Eldred v Ashcroft, the argument on whether retroactive copyright term extensions were legal. Sitting over there on Ashcroft's side? That's Mr. Odgen. For extra-bonus ick points, Ogden also was involved in defending the heinous COPA legislation, fortunately now dead and buried (but not forgotten).

The capper on this line-up of suspicious characters is Donald Verrilli, now up for Associate Deputy Attorney General. This specimen of legal acumen is front and center in the Cartel's jihad, having appeared for Viacom when it sued YouTube, for the RIAA against Jammie Thomas, single mother. And if we peer back a little farther, we find Verrilli's dirty fingerprints on MGM v Grokster.

(More at link at top.)

[robinlynne]

1. What is copyright reform to you? I am a photographer, and for me it is arresting and holding

accountable those who steal my images from the web.
(yahoo, to name one.)

[snot]

2. I'd like to see the duration of copyright protection restored to some reasonable relationship

to the life of the creator, for starters.

[robinlynne]

3. It already is the life of the creator plus X amount of years, I think 50.

But it is not being enforced! (in other words, when a magazine published a 5 page spread of my photos of a singer without paying a dime, the lawyers told me i would win but only get paid the magazine's standard rt of 100 per page, which ignores the copyright violation, and would not be enough to pay legal fees, obviously.)

P.S. I don't want my rights to be gone when I die. I want them to go to my little brother, after I have worked my whole life making these pictures. Otherwise Getty, the huge conglomerate which has my photos on its website for sale would simply keep all of my copyrights.

[snot]

5. Actually, the industry had it extended to at least 70 within the last decade or two.

[spanone]

4. link busted