A veteran U.S. Senator who once favored copyright flexibility until the rise of peer-to-peer networks inspired him to call for destroying music pirates’ computers will lead a new Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property charged with writing copyright law among other things—and working on patent reform.
“I have an aggressive agenda for this subcommittee, starting with comprehensive patent reform,” Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said in a statement announcing the new committee. “We need strong patent protection to give incentives for innovation and economic growth.
“I believe we need to ensure that our intellectual property is protected, especially overseas,” continued the former Judiciary Committee chairman. “Intellectual property rights are the backbone of America’s creative industry, and we are losing billions to pirates in places like Asia and South America who steal our patented, copyrighted and trademarked products.”
Hatch had joined Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) in writing and introducing the failed, so-called Induce Act, a bill that would have banned P2P networks, in the wake of a federal court ruling that held Grokster and Morpheus weren’t responsible for user copyright infringement.
Hatch and Leahy, the ranking Democrat on the new subcommittee, said they plan to launch hearings on patent reform intended to develop “any necessary and appropriate legislation” and reviewing matters like the quality of patent reviews, new post-grant opposition procedures, and securing the long-term resources of the U.S. Patent and Trade Office.
That bill failed following strong opposition from Internet service providers and even some groups who usually sided with the Hatch, as well as a softening of support from the Business Software Alliance, which called for the bill to be rewritten “to ensure that only bad actors were found liable.” Others feared the bill would criminalize products like Apple’s popular iPod digital music player.
Hatch once pressed the Recording Industry Association of America to become more flexible when it came to Internet music licensing and calling an appellate ruling against the original Napster shortsighted. But he later suggested copyright holders should be allowed to hack actual or alleged pirates’ computers from afar, flip-flopping a day later when the comment caused a small uproar and saying he only favored extreme remedies “unless no moderate remedies can be found.”
