The Department of Justice is not happy with the PRO IP Act introduced by Judiciary Chairman John Conyers last week. His comments (reposted below) on the pending bill do little to rebut criticism that the bill would increase litigation by large entertainment companies without protecting the rights of small authors.
“We’re always watching lawyers that are hustling, so that goes with the turf.”
Ok.
In other news, Howard Berman (D-CA) (“Congressman Hollywood“), suggests mandatory filtering technology should be evaluated and that the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions might need to be eliminated. Filtering technology already threatens the fair use of content on the Internet and the DMCA is abused by Studio’s like 20th Century Fox. Strengthening the DMCA and making filtering technology mandatory may further shift rights away from the public.
Maybe Congressman Hollywood’s time would be better spent working out a solution to the writer’s strike.