Source
Automatically imported from: http://commons.somewhere.com:80/rre/1995/Hollywood.c.ah.copyright.html
Content
This web service brought to you by Somewhere.Com, LLC.
Hollywood (c)a$h, copyright, and the Net
```
Date: Wed, 22 Nov 1995 16:17:34 -0500
From: "David H. Rothman"
A famous "White Paper" from the Clinton Administration panders to Netphobic copyright-holders. The White House, for example, wants to turn Internet providers into copyright Gestapos. In the words of Pamela Samuelson, a well-known law professsor and author of a forthcoming Wired article, Clinton policy would "force on-line service providers to become copyright police, charged with enforcing pay-per-use rules..." Why all the loving interest in such "intellectual property" as Terminator flicks? Could one reason be what Prof. Samuelson and I both suspect--that Bill Clinton and friends hope to keep the campaign cash flowing from Hollywood and the like? Bingo! So it would seem. The Center for Responsive Politics has just revealed that in the first part of the year, the copyright interests gave at least $730,000 to the two major parties and members of Congress. "During the first half of 1995, members of the Creative Incentive Coalition and other companies supporting strong copyright controls on the NII contributed $245,500 in soft money to both parties, with the majority, 61 percent, going to the Democrats," the Center reports in its Money in Politics Alert, Vol. 1, #23, dated November 20, 1995. The Center notes: "The Hollywood entertainment industry was an important source of campaign money for President Clinton in his 1992 election. At the time of the Democratic convention, he had raised nearly $260,000 in contributions of $200 and above from executives working in the television and movie production industries. From January 1991 to December 1992, the Democratic Party raised $1.7 million in soft money contributions from these same sources, while the Republican Party raised just $289,000." The Dems still hunger for Hollywood cash. Earlier this year the Clinton people benefited from a $50,000-a-couple fund raiser at the home of Steven Spielberg. Any mystery why the White House has let a little gang of entertainment magnates serve on the 37-member National Information Infrastructure Advisory Council but included just one librarian and one K-12 educator? Or why Al Gore jetted off to Hollywood to tout the NII with entertainment moguls by his side? Wait--there's more. Political Action Committees "associated with members of the CIC, along with other PACs representing movie, software, cable, and recording concerns, contributed $484,555 to congressional candidates during the first half of this year, 69 percent to Republicans," according to the Center. Add that in with the $245,500 given the two major parties and you've accounted for the $730,000. You can bet the Republicans want their share of the big bucks from the copyright lobby. As reported by the Washington Post of October 25, Republican Congressman Sonny Bono, yes, the ex-singer of "Sonny and Cher" fame, has told Hollywood and similar interests to "to 'write your own legislation and bring it to us'" on issues such as copyright. Helpfully he does not promise that submissions will become law. But, hey, Sonny, they've bought you, babe. True, your recent $2,250 from the copyright interests isn't overwhelming, but we know there's more where that came from. Keep pimping away. For more details on the Center's findings, go to: http://www.clark.net/pub/rothman/update5.html You might also drop by the main TeleRead Home Page: http://www.clark.net/pub/rothman/telhome.html The TeleRead Home Page and my book NetWorld! mention $191,000 in political donations from January 1991 through November 1994 from members of Swidler & Berlin--the old law firm of Bruce Lehman, Clinton's copyright czar. It's all in the family. Lehman is a former lawyer-lobbyist for Hollywood and others, and he himself gave a total of at least $22K to 18 congressional candidates during his days at S&B. For sale: Copyright law? Needless to say, Net providers and public interest groups should do everything they can to oppose H.R. 2441 and S. 1284 (the "National Information Infrastructure Copyright Protection Act of 1995")--based on Lehman's anti-Net White Paper paper. David Rothman | rothman@clark.net http://www.clark.net/pub/rothman/networld.html Author, NetWorld!: What People Are Really Doing on the Internet and What It Means to You (Prima Publishing) Clinton-Gore voter in '92. In '96? [Speaking only for myself. I'm not affiliated with the Center.]
CONTACT INFO FOR CENTER: Center for Responsive Politics, 1320 19th St., N.W., Suite #700, Washington, D.C. 20036, telephone 202-857-0044, fax 202-857-7809, email info@crp.org.
[Reproduction encouraged on appropriate lists and newsgroups] ```
This web service brought to you by Somewhere.Com, LLC.