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Gregory S. Gordon
I  am an alumnus of Rochester Institute of Technology where I achieved a bachelors of science in both Economics and Finance. During my time at the university I worked briefly at both a renowned full-service brokerage and a proprietary trading firm. This combination of university education and professional experience has subsequently created a deductive, independent, and rational mental framework as it applies to the intersection of these fields. In my continued analysis and research into Economics and Finance I have been driven in the attempt to publish and distribute works of original thought in pursuit of enriching individuals' decision-making process.
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[Citation Needed] From SOPA, Protect IP Advocates

Posted by Gregory on 2012/01/21

S. 968, The Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011 (Protect IP) is being brought to the Senate by Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) and 40 co-sponsors and is to be voted on the 23rd. Even though at this point it is most likely to fail, Senator Harry Reid (D-Nevada) is calling for a cloture vote later this month on their version of the Representative Lamar Smith’s (R-Texas ) Stop Online Piracy Act which comes to vote next month in the House.

Upon summary of this legislation it seems to seek to fulfill the shortcomings in intellectual property (IP) protection. As of 2009, a U.S International Trade Commission reported that they lost an estimated $48B from outside of its borders to China alone. Essentially, it is trying to securitize American business IP by empowering the Department of Justice’s Attorney General to use injunctions to cease and desist web sites outside of the U.S network by policing search engines, domain registers, advertisers, financial transfer payments, etc. It will grant immunity to comply with the law and who report such web sites. Problem is it expects online entities to police the Internet on behalf of U.S IP upon industry estimates that are unreliable according to Julian Sanchez. He also talks about how such firms maybe just circumventing competition and more precisely how much piracy is a result from not competing versus true pirating?

The thinking behind the opposition to this legislation seems to resemble a cum hoc ergo propter hoc argument. However, given the past histories of other legislation, I do have to give credence to this argument as being quite probable. Legislation proposed to stop international piracy may be passed and set precedence or be amended to thwart questionable domestic IP infringement as well further extorting content censorship and monopolization as protested by the likes of Wikipedia, Google, Facebook, etc.

Subsequently, it does raises some significant questions like, where does the right of IP ownership end? If I purchase the property, then do I not own it? Or have I purchased only the right to use it? At some point, transfer of ownership needs to take place when market profits have been taken in exchange for the property. In my opinion, what seems to be coming about is the use of lobbying in delimiting, controlling and maximizing profits of IP at the expense of competitive practices. By logic of the firms supporting this legislation it seems they wish to own the IP from production to personal ownership and it would require immense policing and regulation only starting with PROTECT IP and SOPA.

I think that the Federal government ought not to be involved in the protection of IP and profit interests of private enterprise to the extent that it has. Instead it ought to be private enterprise defeating or at least containing piracy by economic means via creating new modes of mediums and profitability, not protecting profits by lawsuits.

  • Sunlight Foundation. (2012). Congress (Version 1.0.0.0). [Mobile application software]. Retrieved from http://market.android.com/
  • United States International Trade Commision. (2011, May). China: Effects of Intellectual Property Infringement and Indigenous Innovation Policies on the U.S Economy. Retrieved from http://www.usitc.gov/publications/332/pub4226.pdf
  • Sanchez, Julian. (2012, January 18th). [citation needed] From SOPA, Protect IP Advocates. CATO Podcast. Podcast retrieved from http://www.cato.org/multimedia/daily-podcast/citation-needed-sopa-protect-ip-advocates
  • Israel, Josh (2012, January 18). Who Is Lobbying For And Against Protect IP Act. Retrieved from http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/01/18/406397/chart-who-is-lobbying-for-and-against-the-protect-ip-act/
Category: Ideology
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