Saturday July 2nd, 2011 09:50:50 PM U.S. Central Standard Time The Wyden Problem As I sat in the gallery of the Senate Judiciary Hearing last February I remember listening intently as Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island) stated, unceremoniously, “…I believe we are suffering what is probably the biggest transfer of wealth through theft and piracy in the history of mankind.”
Of course the Rhode Island Senator was referring to the total destruction of U.S. intellectual property over the past ten years. Thinking back and assiduously checking my notes, which were carefully crafted in my Moleskine notebook during the hearing, I find no specific references made by Yahoo or Google. Of course the reason for the lack of substantive information pertaining remarks made by Yahoo and Google was because both were no-shows. Thinking back it is hard to imagine that a Congressional hearing of such importance to our Nation’s future and to virtually every intellectual rights holder in America would be ignored by these two Internet titans. Of course Google had been invited by the committee to testify but decided not to attend. Google’ s no show status prompted Senator Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma) to suggest, during the hearing, that he would utilize the committee's subpoena power to compel representatives of Google to testify at future hearings. I believe the threat issued by Coburn resulted in Google’s decision to attend the House Judiciary Committee hearing in April of 2011.
The most vocal opponent of new common sense legislation by Congress is Senator Ron Wyden. (D-Oregon) His views concerning the Internet are the most pernicious for copyright holders today. For the record Wyden was also against the previous COCIA Legislation because, as he stated, ”COICA’s at-all-costs approach to protecting intellectual property would have inflicted collateral damage on the foundations of the Internet, trampled free speech, stifled innovation and given license to foreign regimes to further censor the Internet for political and commercial purposes. “
Wyden’s criticism attempts to make it seem so dishonorable as he attempt to vilify members on the Judiciary Committee, who are unanimously in favor of tough new oversight. Wyden’s concise use of the age-old political ploy of invoking the language of Political Idealism has the desired impact on the misinformed and weak-minded. When reading Wyden’s idealistic and negative view of new Internet oversight many will say, “…How could anyone be against free speech?” Others will probably cry out, “That’s un-American for god’s sakes…” Of course everyone knows no fair-minded American could be against any of the basic tenants of a free society, free speech, and an unfettered open Internet. I would venture to say that we are all against giving licenses to foreign regimes to sensor the Internet. But of course that’s not the issue here. The issue is not, as Wyden would have you believe, stifling free speech or tearing down the foundations of the Internet. The issue is how to maintain an environment where pirates can continue to assault rights holders while some make billions of dollars ripping off content of legitimate rights holders.
New legislation, in the view of the majority of the Senate Judiciary Committee members, would put common sense remedies in place to stop the massive and unprecedented transfer of wealth from the United States. Instead Senator Wyden releases a statement May 12th, 2011 referencing the Protect IP Act where Wyden chooses whimsical metaphorical references like “bunker busting bombs” and “strategic guided missiles” in referring to elements of the COICA legislation he opposes. Could these references be anymore misleading about the true intent of the responsible members of the Senate Judiciary Committee? Could the choice of such incendiary references, which are carefully composed by member’s of Wyden’s staff, tell us more about Wyden’s true intentions than his assertions that innovation will be stifled or trampled free speech? In my view it had nothing to do with any of those assertions, but instead more to do with the preservation of Wyden’s own political future.
After ten years of Safe Harbor protection crafted and set in place to protect intellectual property but also to provide protection for technological innovation, what do we have to show for it? What we have now is a nearly bankrupt record business, Mainland China running on stolen U.S. software and thousand of websites dedicated to copyright infringment. So what innovation resulted from the Safe Harbors? By far the most notable has been Google, Facebook, Farmville Games, and Pandora, which are Internet darlings at the moment. However, the protections provided by the Safe Harbor has also resulted in the loss of billions and billions dollars and hundreds of thousands of American jobs here at home. So while these new and incredible technical innovations like Facebook and Pandora are celebrated as Internet wonders, the U.S. continues to have its intellectual treasure dished out to the rest of the world in the name of free speech.
Now let’s take a little closer look at Senator Ron Wyden’s (D-Oregon) point of view. His continuing diatribe concerning potential freedoms lost is tiresome and for the most part ridiculous. His references to “…given license to foreign regimes to further censor the Internet for political reasons,” seems a bit out of touch to me as I watch events of the “Arab Spring” develop on my flat screen T.V. Just for the record, when “oppressive regimes” do what they do to “oppress” they usually do so without paying much attention to the finer issues of freedom of the Internet. As we have seen in China, which incidentally is the recipient of most of our intellectual wealth, is oppressive but ironically China has profited greatly due to inaction United States Government. Of course Wyden’s opposition is just more “noisy political static” from a politician who’s political support comes from those who want the Wild West version of the Internet to continue forever.
Today in China forty-three percent of elementary age students aspire to become computer hackers then march valiantly into cyberspace looking to steal more and more American intellectual property. I can’t help but think Senator Wyden should put his country’s survival before the needs of his misinformed and misdirected constituents. He should step up and do what is right. He should stop immediately in his attempts to “gut” every effort made by Congress to clean up the Internet and secure the rights of those who own intellectual property.
John L. DuPuis, Editor - The Chilling Report
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