Obama, Keep Filling Administration with RIAA Insiders | Threat Level from Wired.com

 Obama, Keep Filling Administration with RIAA Insiders | Threat Level from Wired.com

Obama, Keep Filling Administration with RIAA Insiders

By David Kravets April 21, 2009 | 7:35:12 PMCategories: Intellectual Property

 

The content industry, including the Recording Industry Association of America and the Motion Picture Association of America, are applauding President Barack Obama's appointments of at least five RIAA lawyers to the Justice Department.

They urged him to continue the trend.

"The hallmarks of your administration's appointees have been competence, substantive expertise, and a commitment to your administration's agenda," the Copyright Alliance, a group of three-plus dozen content owners, wrote the president Monday (.pdf). "We have every confidence these hallmarks will be demonstrated in your future IP policy appointments."

The presidential letter comes as the United States negotiates a global intellectual property treaty and as the president mulls whom to choose as the nation's first copyright czar.

The communication was also in response to a letter the copyleft, represented by about two dozen public interest groups, sent Obama three weeks ago. That missive urged the president to stop tapping RIAA insiders to his administration.

That letter by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Public Knowledge and others fell on deaf ears. Last week, Obama tapped his fifth RIAA lawyer to the Justice Department. The department just wrote in a peer-to-peer music file sharing case that the administration supports monetary damages of up to $150,000 per copyright infringement.

Obama, Keep Filling Administration with RIAA Insiders | Threat Level from Wired.com