GOP Study Committee Director Disowns Brief Attacking Current IP Law

cervesaebraciator writes "Saturday an article was featured on Slashdot which expressed some hope, if just a fool's hope, that a recent Republican Study Committee Brief could be a sign of broader national discussion about the value of current copyright law. When one sees such progress, credit is deservedly given. Unfortunately, others in Washington did not perhaps see this as worthy of praise. The committee's executive director, Paul Teller, sent a memo today disavowing the earlier pro-copyright reform brief. From the memo: 'Yesterday you received a Policy Brief or [sic] copyright law that was published without adequate review within the RSC and failed to meet that standard. Copyright reform would have far-reaching impacts, so it is incredibly important that it be approached with all facts and viewpoints in hand.' People who live in districts such as Ohio's 4th would do well to send letters of support to those who crafted the original brief. I cannot imagine party leadership will be happy with so radical a suggestion as granting copyright protection for the limited times needed to promote the progress of science and useful arts."

Re:At least it's out there

[Anonymous Coward]

If you do write them, ensure that you identify yourself as a fat white man that's frightened of change. Otherwise they're not going to listen.

Links

[Bob9113]

Here are three links to the text form of the brief:

On One of My Boxes [traxel.com]

On Reference Blog [nfshost.com]

On Pastebin [pastebin.com]

Re:The GOP is very divided.

[pwizard2]

The real telling fact is that more than 2 weeks after the election the GOP apparently still doesn't know why it lost. The reason is the American people weren't interested in buying what the GOP was selling. We still don't know the details of what Romney's tax plan would have been... the whole "vote for me and I'll tell you after the election" stance just didn't fly. Why should it? The GOP seems to be at war with itself. As parent said, you have the more traditional "yay for the rich" power base competing with the insane religious right mentality. There's also the built-in racism of how poor people (ESPECIALLY minorities) "want free stuff" even though our tax money paid for it yet for some reason it's ok when the rich get welfare in the form of subsidies and tax breaks because they're the "job creators". It's like a broken record with these guys.

They have yet to offer one compelling reason why anyone (who isn't an old rich white man) should side with them. For their sakes they should hope that sort of thing will die out with the current generation. The GOP has always used bigotry and religion to get regular people to vote against their own best interests, but this year they went too far with it and people began to see it for what it was. Forget the economy, the worst income inequality in nearly a century, and crushing deficit... the real important issues to the GOP are contraception, abortion, keeping gay people from marrying, and the definition of legitimate rape. I kid you not.

Re:The GOP is very divided.

[pwizard2]

Please. The election was close - very close. Part of the reason for the loss was the meltdown of Orca, which was covered on Slashdot. Part of the reason was simply that, yes, people didn't like what Romney was selling: responsibility. Obama offered people "free" things taken "from the rich," Romney offered them the responsibility to care for themselves and the opportunity to get ahead in life. 49% went for opportunity, but unfortunately for them and America, 47+4% went for free things.

Obama won the popular vote by a significant margin ( 3,476,775 votes) and the electoral vote was a total blowout. (332:206) Romney barely broke the 200s and >270 was needed to win so Romney never even had a chance. (he didn't even get his home state) That happened even with all the last-minute voter disenfranchisement tactics guys like Rick Scott and John Husted were pulling in swing states like Florida and Ohio. The GOP tried to steal the election and they still lost badly. We would have had a Dem-controlled house as well if not for the gerrymandering from 2010 favoring the GOP.

I take it you are against social programs? It's amazing how many libertarians tend to go socialist at the drop of a hat when times get tough. The rich should pay more because they can afford it and they owe the society which allowed them to be successful.

For the chance to get ahead in life. For the opportunity to live the American dream. For getting government out of your lives. There are plenty of things the Republican party offers everyone.

Ah yes, the American dream. Just what is that? You talk about "opportunity" but I sure don't see much of that these days because the GOP went out of their way to block anything that might have helped the country these past 4 years. You really think that people who voted for Obama aren't responsible for their own lives? It takes a lot of responsibility to make it in today's world where it seems to get harder and harder to make it every single year. Also, how in the hell are people supposed to get ahead in life when people like Romney were busy gutting companies and outsourcing jobs for their own profit?

Bullshit. The economy WAS the most important focus this last election. At least it was what everyone who wasn't the media was focused on. Yes, you're right, Republicans want people to take responsibility for their own lives. They don't feel the need to give people "free" birth control (stolen from "the rich"). They believe that everyone should be given an opportunity in life, including the unborn. They believe that the government should not be allowed to redefine a religious concept like marriage. The "legitimate rape" comment was ONE PERSON. It wasn't the entire party.

Ok, what were the GOP's plans for the economy? What little I managed to glean from Romney during the debates sounded a lot like what Bush did a few years ago and we all know how that went. The GOP is against abortion but at the same time they are also against contraception...which prevents abortion. Maybe they're just doing it out of spite, I can't be sure. You say the GOP wants to get the government out of your life... except it doesn't. It wants to use the full power of government to force its particular brand of fundamentalist morality on everyone in direct violation of the first amendment. Are you saying we should let a bunch of religious bigots define what marriage is? No thanks. Also, there were lots of guys who made embarrassing sound bytes this past cycle... Murdock and Akin are simply the most recent.