RIAA's Rosen 'writing Iraq copyright laws'

Chief executive for the Recording Industry Association of America, Hilary Rosen, is helping draft copyright legislation for the New Iraq, according to investigative journalist Gregory Palast.

"Who's really going to win this war? It looks like Madonna," Palast told Democracy Now radio. "Where before, they feared Saddam Hussein, now they have to fear Sony Records will chop off their hands if they bootleg a Madonna album."

Under Iraqi copyright legislation, passed by The Revolution Leadership Council in 1971, a copyright lapses 25 years after the death of the author, but no more then fifty years after the publication of the work. It's shorter for private works, and there are several public interest exemptions.

We wonder which member of The Revolution Leadership Council penned this, or whether someone wrote it for them, but the real author of this enlightened document ought to step forward. Maybe they could help liberate the USA - which extended copyright to seventy years after the author's death - from Hollywood.

(Do we sense a campaign coming on?)

But if true, and Palast has a good record for trade politics, Rosen's dash for Baghdad isn't hard to explain.

Iraq does not have a reciprocal copyright agreement with the United States, which means that US works are not protected.

Hilary will almost certainly be setting to work on the current law's Article 13:- "The author may not prevent a person making one copy of a published work for his own use."

And she will want to stiffen the penalties for infringement:- one hundred dinars, or three hundred for repeat offenders. Maybe she will shoot for something closer to the $97 trillion the RIAA has claimed as damages from the file-sharing students back in the Homeland.

With the effective collapse of the UN's food program, it's nice to see Rosen's humanitarian impulses remain untarnished by war.

A month ago Congressman Darrell Issa (R., San Diego) introduced a bill ensuring that Qualcomm, based in his congressional district, be given a foothold in the New Iraq. Europe and the Middle East use the global GSM standard. ®

Rosen's first draft:

Article 1: We the People of the Iraq, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the Iraq.

Article 2: Upon conviction or adjudication of guilt of a defendant of a capital felony involving the use of file-swapping conduits, the court shall conduct a separate sentencing proceeding to determine whether the defendant should be sentenced to death or life imprisonment.

I'd argue that 'IP' laws are an impossible legal fiction that can not last.

'Ideas' are not property. Any more than 'slaves' were property.

I'd argue that 'minimum wage' laws are what is required for 'ideas'. A guarantee that you will get paid for use of the ideas.

Labeling 'ideas' as 'property' actually retards economic activity. Especially as the 'IP' time period approaches 'infinite'.

When a good new idea is 'owned' for 100+ years, then that means the vast majority of society can't use the new ideas.

That's the kind of argumental style a Leftist would use. ANYthing to rationalize theft.

Did you sweat for years to learn to play anything? Pay for the piano lessons? Pay your dues in smoky lounges and all night bus rides? The thousands upon thousands of dollars for time in a studio, or for equipment for your own in the basement (plus the time to learn to use it)? The price of the obligatory video? The percentages towards agents and club owners?

The music ain't yours, and your kind knows it. If you don't have the morals and the stamina to uphold them, instead of letting Rosen and Valenti, et al, know they have you by the gonads....

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