

70 Groups Tell Congress To Put The Brakes On Any Further Efforts To Expand IP - dazbradbury
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120206/11033317671/70-groups-tell-congress-to-put-brakes-any-further-efforts-to-expand-intellectual-property.shtml

======
fpp
Maybe it's time to have a closer look at the numbers that matter here and who
it is that is pushing so hard to get these kinds of licenses to collect money
through.

Certainly none of these oppressive regulations with all their side effects
from censorship, loss of civil rights to medicine and industrial espionage
would even be discussed if it wasn't for the music industry.

As we are constantly flooded with their products, let's have a look at how big
that industry really is. The IFPI - their industry body - has just published
global music sales at $16.2bn for 2011. Yes this is the industry as a whole
and globally - not just one company. And it includes all digital music sales
(strongly rising), subscriptions etc. With these revenues the global music
industry as a whole does not even make it into the list of the 200 largest
corporations.

Now what would you do when - for lack of a better example - the global
Christmas Tree industry (was about the same size but due to recent effects of
globalization has lost substantial revenues) would treat every citizen like a
criminal, put up surveillance measures that would make every totalitarian
state proud, put you or your children into prison with punishments similar to
murderers, tries to extort fees from you / your children for minor offences
that could make up the last 10 years of revenues of one of their mid-size
member companies, and would ask everyone who buys a blank DVD/CD to pay them
because you could actually save an image of a Christmas tree on it. Let alone
all the gardeners that are really responsible that nobody wants to buy 10
Christmas trees every year for $100 each. Those really have to be hunted down.

This metaphor aside, if you look at these numbers ($16.2bn) that on a global
scale are very small even for a single business to attract such attention
(these are revenues not income), it becomes obvious that something is
substantially wrong here latest when you look at the hundreds of millions of
"lobby-money" paid in the U.S. alone.

Besides that I believe it is fair to say that the damages from such
legislation for all citizens and other companies will most likely be on par
with the $300bn damages recently calculated from excessive IP/Patent "usage".
That is millions of jobs and the lives of millions of families.

Maybe it will help to tell your congressman that (s)he is selling the lives of
thousands of people in your constituency for a dinner sponsored by a local
shop in Hollywood. A small Christmas tree might also help ;)

(IFPI numbers at [http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/jan/23/global-music-
sal...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/jan/23/global-music-sales) )

~~~
dodedo
Very insightful comparison, thank you.

The push is not only coming from the IFPI, however. There is also the movie
industry, which is a much larger industry. I can't find exact numbers offhand,
but this article places global box-office receipts at $31bn -- and that's not
including media sales or rental revenue.
[http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2011/0...](http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2011/02/industry-
report-international-box-office-revenue-soars-in-2010.html)

~~~
rayiner
What might media sales be? Another $20 billion? Let's say $40 billion. That's
$70 billion + $16 billion = $85 billion, or less than Apple by itself. That
puts the entire music + movie industry somewhere around the same revenue as
Kroger (the grocery store): <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kroger>. Does Kroger
have anywhere near the political clout of the music+movie industry?

------
dazbradbury
Here is the PDF of the letter sent to congress, signed by all parties (inc
Mozilla, Reddit & Amnesty):

[http://www.publicknowledge.org/files/Public_Knowledge-
Intern...](http://www.publicknowledge.org/files/Public_Knowledge-
Internet_Letter_to_Congress.pdf)

------
wisty
It doesn't matter. The US just has one vote on the UN's WIPO
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Intellectual_Property_Org...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Intellectual_Property_Organization).
I've no idea how you get 185 member states to decide that 50 years after death
is a good minimum length for copyright. Imagine the good they could do if they
agreed on anything useful!

~~~
disgruntledphd2
The one vote of the US doesn't matter. Historically, the US has been the
biggest funder of the UN, and traditionally the organisation is dependent on
the dues of the US being paid. The US tends to use this as a bargaining chip,
which is an awful lot more powerful than just one vote.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_and_the_United_Na...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_and_the_United_Nations#The_U.S._arrears_issue)

Bear in mind that we're not even talking about US diplomatic efforts here,
which typically sway many nations in exchange for other favours.

------
CWIZO
It's interesting that Google is not on that list, especially after they have
participated in the black-out. I'm going to play the devil's advocate here and
ask: did they black-out simply for publicity?

~~~
yaks_hairbrush
I also don't see Wikipedia. Strange.

~~~
Radix
Wales asked the Wikipedia itself to vote on whether there would be a blackout.
Here on HN there were a couple comments that they were disappointed to see
Wikipedia doing advocacy. I think asking Wikipedia itself is a good line to
follow as far as protecting its interests without Wales and the other people
who physically control Wikipedia using it for their own political goals. So it
is in character.

------
benologist
Why submit or upvote a 3 sentence summary of
[http://www.publicknowledge.org/70-groups-ask-congress-
halt-w...](http://www.publicknowledge.org/70-groups-ask-congress-halt-work-
intellectual-prop)

------
maeon3
Censoring the Internet should be demonized and ridiculed as people using
botnets to ddos sites. Its the same thing really, getting a bunch of people
together and deciding something should be unavailable to everyone without
including the justice system.

I hope one day to see some politician convicted of conspiracy to destroy a
national asset in exchange for bribes as a convicted botnet user who used it
to ddos sites.

