Friday, July 10, 2009

What chance do musicians & consumers have for fair copyright law, when RIAA wines & dines legislators behind closed doors?

Came across this Huffington Post story thanks to @NWatzman on Twitter.

What chance do musicians, filmmakers, and consumers have for fair and balanced copyright legislation when the RIAA is allowed to wine and dine our legislators behind closed doors? It is a national disgrace.

We need legislation to prevent this type of corruption. Now.

I am sick.

-R.B.

Commentary & discussion:

p2pnet.net





Keywords: lawyer digital copyright law online internet law legal download upload peer to peer p2p file sharing filesharing music movies indie independent label freeculture creative commons pop/rock artists riaa independent mp3 cd favorite songs intellectual property portable music player

4 comments:

WeatherGod said...

While I agree with the overall sentiment of lobbying reform, I am unsure of what in particular is making you sick in this case? Was it that the reporter (possibly uninvited) was kicked out of the fund-raiser/party, or that RIAA lobbyists were allowed to have a private fund-raiser/party?

If it was a private party, then I would understand restricting who may or may not attend... this idea have been upheld by the Supreme Court in the Boy Scouts case a while back.

A private party/fund-raiser is, indeed, an unfair way to bend the ear of politicans because if the group that has the opposing view is inherently underfunded, then it can hardly compete for the attention of the lawmaker.

In fact, I assert that a lawmaker's attention is a national resource, and should be available for all citizens.

On the flip side, a lawmaker is 'always working', and forbidding them from ever attending private parties during their term would never work...

Eric said...

Parties are nothing, how about the fact that most major legislation is *written* by these special interest groups.

At best the people can hope for these days are the random alignment of powerful companies interests with that of public domain or fair use.

Anonymous said...

It's in your hands:
http://change-congress.org/

Unknown said...

Benjamin he might be sick because these "Fund raisers" are being used as a loophole to evade the new rules covering lobbyist.

Also how many actual fund raising have you seen where members of the press are not only not invited but actually shown the door upon showing up? Most fund raisers even when invite only seek out the press to get out the word on their candidate.

Maybe just maybe we'll get lucky and when the FEC does its next audit of these PACs the RIAA will have to fess up.