Slashdot Log In
"Hollywood" Howard Berman To Leave Internet Subcommittee
Posted by
kdawson
on Sat Jan 26, 2008 01:08 PM
from the so-long-and-thanks-for-all-the-laws dept.
from the so-long-and-thanks-for-all-the-laws dept.
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "'Hollywood' Howard Berman (D-CA), who chairs the House Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property appears to be on the way out. He is slated to move over to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, leaving his chair on the Internet subcommittee vacant. Long known for wanting to strengthen the DMCA and backing copyright grabs like the PRO-IP Act, Berman will be missed by big media. The good news is that Rick Boucher (D-VA) may be the one to replace him. Rep. Boucher has been interviewed on Slashdot and is in favor of copyright reform. They still need to win their upcoming elections and the full Commerce Committee will still be chaired by John Conyers (D-MI), though."
Related Stories
[+]
News: Congressman Boucher Responds 229 comments
Okay, the answers to your questions for U.S. Representative Rick Boucher are in. No, his staff didn't write them. Everything you see here is straight from the Congressman himself. This is a nice bit of insight into legislative thinking about the Internet, and gives a little info on how you can help change laws you don't like, too.
Submission: Berman to Leave House Internet Subcommittee by Anonymous Coward
[+]
News: Controversial Section of PRO-IP Act Cut 101 comments
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "Rep. Berman (D-CA) has removed the controversial section 104 from his PRO-IP Act. That section would have multiplied the already excessive statutory damages for infringement in the case of compilations, making the damages for infringing upon the copyrights of a single average CD rise into the millions of dollars. This change came after proponents of the amendment were unable to cite even one case where the statutory damages recovered were insufficient. But don't let the article fool you into thinking that the PRO-IP Act is no longer controversial now that this one section is gone, the act still creates copyright cops who are authorized to seize people's computers."
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Full
Abbreviated
Hidden
Loading... please wait.
Boucher (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:1, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
This doesn't really seem like a win.. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:1)
Yup. The copyright laws are suitably draconian now in the good old US of A that the media companies can move move to big guns to the getting you foreigners in line.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
It's already way too late for that... The DMCA is US's implementation of the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organisation) Copyright Treaty. Europe already has its own implementation of the treaty in the form of a set [wikipedia.org] of [wikipedia.org] directives [wikipedia.org] which most European countries have implemented by now, some even more draconian than the DMCA. Many other countries are following. You can see them fall one by one here [wipo.int].
So, vote the bums out! (Score:1, Troll)
What's up, Democrats? Yeah, yeah... Troll, troll...
Don't put your guard down (Score:5, Insightful)
Okay, so Berman's out and Boucher may replace him, but that doesn't mean the fight is over. The media companies have enough money to change anyone's attitude toward copyright reform. Now would be a good time to let Boucher know (if you are in his district) that you too support copyright reform.
---
Boycott Nokia [nrwspd.de] - Nokia accepts 88M Euro in subsidies from Germany, and then lays off 3000 German workers.
Re: (Score:1)
The media companies have enough money to change anyone's attitude toward copyright reform.
I am aware, [slashdot.org] but at the moment, it's still GREAT news. Boucher has a pretty lengthy track record favoring the people over Hollywood. Berman on the other hand is the frickin' devil. Really, he's the anti-christ and Orin Hatch is Satan. Just getting Berman out of there is a huge victory! The only thing that could be better would be finding him under an anvil.... but to replace him with Boucher?!? That's a dream
Now that copyright reform is possible... (Score:2, Interesting)
Cue Bob Marley (Score:4, Funny)
(sigh... go ahead... smite me...)
Don't forget about Mr. Tubes! (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1, Offtopic)
There they go again (Score:4, Funny)
Foreign Affairs? (Score:2)
Perhaps a lame question (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
BTW I have dibs on www.wtfisthatpileofshit.com
Here are two places: (Score:3, Interesting)
http://www.opensecrets.org/ [opensecrets.org]
Good places to get started to figure out where everyone stands. Don't forget your congress critters home page, either.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
That's a joke, son.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Well, it could also be noise in the polls. Hard to tell where they put in their margin of error.
FAIR USE Act (Score:5, Interesting)
only on slashdot (Score:5, Insightful)
Isn't it even worse to have a corporate shill influencing foreign policy?
Forgive my lack of enthusiasm, I forgot that now your internets are safe
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, but when it comes to US foreign policy, all representatives are assumed to be equally incompetent.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Committee on Foreign Affairs? (Score:2)
Two words ... (Score:2)
Now if we can just get him to leave Congress
Commerce is headed by Dingell, not Conyers (Score:1)