Big Content gloats as Bush signs PRO-IP Act

The PRO-IP Act sailed through Congress as legislators stayed on in DC to deal …

Nate Anderson – Oct 14, 2008 1:48 pm | 0

How good was the recently-passed PRO-IP Act, the bill that pumped up intellectual property enforcement and created an executive branch "copyright czar" even though the executive branch didn't want this and thought it was a bad idea? So good that the bill alone can shore up President Bush's legacy after years of war, Katrina, wiretapping, and economic collapse. In other words, lawmakers busted out a fresh jar of Awesome and slathered it all over the PRO-IP Act, which President Bush—no doubt thinking of his legacy—signed into law yesterday.

Those who believe they will benefit from the PRO-IP Act have pulled out the rhetorical stops in praising the bill, which thankfully lost some of its worst provisions before passage. Tom Donohue, head of the US Chamber of Commerce, was the man who said that Bush could "leave a lasting legacy to support America's innovation economy by signing it into law."

John Engler of the National Association of Manufacturers hailed the bill as "shining example of a bicameral, bipartisan effort to advance legislation to protect our consumers, jobs and businesses from intellectual property piracy and counterfeiting." Mitch Bainwol, head of the RIAA, called the bill "music to the ears of all those who care about strengthening American creativity and jobs" and said that it was also a win for consumers "who will enjoy a wider array of legitimate offerings." The MPAA's Dan Glickman chimed in with praise for a "truly bipartisan effort" in which both sides "demonstrated their leadership today and their ability to work together when American economic productivity is at stake."

In addition to creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs (says the Copyright Alliance) and boosting our economy at this "critical juncture" (says the RIAA), the PRO-IP Act also has the happy benefit of hurting terrorists. As the White House noted when Bush signed the bill, "Terrorist networks use counterfeit sales to finance their operations."

Well, possibly. But the concerns of the big trade groups are economic. The National Association of Manufacturers says that "intellectual property theft costs American businesses $250 billion in lost revenue each year and we simply cannot afford to let this continue." (See our own lengthy investigation into just how unbelievably worthless this $250 billion number is.) The RIAA scales that imaginary number back to $58 billion a year and 370,000 lost jobs, while the Copyright Alliance gets even more vague with "billions of dollars in lost revenue and hundreds of thousands of lost jobs."

The bill was originally designed so that the Department of Justice would get involved in prosecuting major civil cases against copyright infringers—cases which have always been brought by the rights-holder—and then turning all damages collected over to the rights-holder. This hugely controversial measure, which threatened to turn the government into a free lawyer for some of the deepest-pocketed trade groups in the country, was stripped from the bill before passage.

What remains is more modest. The PRO-IP Act beefs up enforcement programs around the world, boosts damages in criminal infringement cases, and will put a copyright czar in the executive branch to oversee all the government's work against piracy and counterfeiting.

This last measure has also been controversial. The "IP Enforcement Representative" in the executive branch will create and oversee the "Joint Strategic Plan" against counterfeiting and piracy, coordinating the efforts of the many government departments that deal with these issues. The IP Enforcement Representative also has the power to "adopt an official seal."

The Bush administration already has something like this in place, an interagency program called STOP! (Strategy Targeting Organized Piracy), and it's not keen on being told how to conduct its affairs on this issue. But despite the opposition, Bush signed the bill anyway yesterday, since it also beefs up penalties and enforcement efforts in the US and around the world.

With the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement under negotiation now (and without the public or pesky legislators looking over the deal being crafted), Big Content looks like it could well end up having a good year in DC—we imagine the champagne is already flowing on K Street.