Republican Staffer Fired For Copyright Reform Suggestions

The Register’s Iain Thomson reports that a Republican staffer who wrote a position paper (http://goo.gl/3vBGV) suggesting that the current system of copyright legislation might benefit some market-based reform has been summarily fired for saying that the current copyright system “violates nearly every tenet of laissez faire capitalism,” ensures government-enforced monopolies rather than competitive stimulation, that excessive fines for copyright infringement harm innovation, and that America’s unusually long copyright period of 75 years plus the author’s life breaks the statutes set out by America’s Founding Fathers “for a limited copyright – not an indefinite monopoly,” and that “current copyright law does not merely distort some markets rather it destroys entire markets.”

The party has pulled the paper, but the RSC Policy Brief:
“Three Myths about Copyright Law and Where to Start to Fix it” by former GOP staffer Derek S. Khanna can be found here:
http://goo.gl/hxapZ

Copyright Event Room Changed to Longworth 1310 on 12/13

Join the Washington-based International Center for Law & Economics, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and TechFreedom, on December 13 at 3pm for CopyRIGHT: Can Free Marketeers Agree On Copyright Reform? Please note: to make security clearance easier for guests, they’ve moved the room to Longworth 1310.

A panel of free marketeers with diverse views on copyright will explore the debate among conservatives and libertarians about the purpose of copyright, how it interacts with other rights, and a range of other questions. How is copyright like real property, and how do they differ? Will technological change force copyright to change, too? The conference will address these questions and discuss areas of consensus and disagreement regarding how and whether the Copyright Act should be amended to address challenges involving orphan works, fair use, piracy, intermediary liability, free speech and rogue foreign websites among others.

TechFreedom President Berin Szoka will moderate a panel featuring:

• Jerry Brito, Senior Research Fellow, Mercatus Center at George Mason University
• Larry Downes, author of The Laws of Disruption
• Geoffrey Manne, Lecturer in Law, Lewis & Clark Law School & Executive Director, ICLE
• Adam Mossoff, Professor of Law, George Mason University School of Law
• Ryan Radia, Associate Director of Technology Studies, Competitive Enterprise Institute

You can follow the conversation on Twitter on the #RightCR hashtag. You can join the Facebook event to see who else will be coming – but please RSVP. A livestream of the event will be available here.
http://goo.gl/DWA3v

When:
Thursday, December 13, 2012
3:00 p.m. – 4:15 p.m. (coffee and registration begins at 2:45 p.m.)

Where:
1310 Longworth House Office Building
Independence Ave & New Jersey Ave
Washington D.C. 20515

For more information, visit:
http://goo.gl/DWA3v