Victoria Espinel, the Intellectual
Property Enforcement Coordinator (IPEC), recently released her annual report
on intellectual property enforcement.
This post touches on just one part of the report—the Administration’s
renewed endorsement of a need for legislation
“to address offshore infringement and counterfeiting,” even after the massive
outcry against SOPA, and without acknowledgement of the public’s voiced
opposition and its impact.
Although it is
admittedly a report on IP enforcement, this report was very one-sided. For example, the report discussed
“victims/rightholders” and how “it is important that the Federal government and
rightholders work together” and that IPEC will continue to “encourage
communication and information sharing efforts.” The
public was left out of this dialogue, as were other clear stakeholders like the
technology products and services that facilitate this communication and
information sharing.
There were few
mentions of PROTECT IP and SOPA, and when these bills were acknowledged, there
was little recognition of their flaws, and no acknowledgement of the impact
that American Internet users had on these bills’ decline, due to objections
about the bills’ content and process.
An excerpt from page 34 of the report reads:
We
believe that new legislative and non-legislative tools are needed to address
offshore infringement and counterfeiting and call on all stakeholders to work
cooperatively together[.] On
January 15, we released a statement
in response to a We the People petition setting out the Administration’s
position[.]
The
response recognizes that online piracy is a serious problem, but also makes it
clear that the Administration will not support legislation that reduces freedom
of expression, increases cybersecurity risk (including authority to tamper with
the DNS system), or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet[.]
The
Administration is interested in working with Congress to ensure that these
issues are addressed in a manner that takes into account the challenges and
opportunities of the Internet and that is consistent with the Administration’s
goals and public policy principles[.]
This segment
does “call on all stakeholders,” and CCIA is hopeful that when the
Administration “work[s] with Congress” they will include the interests of the
opposition to the bills voiced by the public, Internet engineers, venture
capitalists, entrepreneurs and innovators, artists and creators, academics and
educators, human rights advocates, and many,
many others.
CCIA and its
members recognize the problem of international commercial piracy, and are
pleased to see the inclusion of the OPEN Act, a bill that CCIA supports. However, the report could have
reflected a greater awareness of the historic events surrounding the January
18, 2012 blackout, the impact they had on SOPA and PROTECT IP’s demise in this
Congress, and the influence they may have going forward on intellectual
property law and policy. But
change can’t occur if the government continues to strategically ignore details
from history; they must listen to all voices in legislation and enforcement
going forward.
