Intellectual Property Law

Mr. Verrone Goes to Washington

By Siva Vaidhyanathan

Before the month is out, I don't want to neglect the fact that pal WGA president Patric Verrone continues to fight the good fight for Network Neutrality in support of the bipartisan Internet Freedom Preservation Act, which is sponsored by Byron Dorgan and Olympia Snowe. Last week Verrone spoke in a hearing of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation. I particularly liked the fact that his official statement ended with this line:

IN AN INDUSTRY FILLED WITH OXYMORONS FROM JUMBO SHRIMP TO HOLLYWOOD ACCOUNTING, WE MUST WIN THE ?FIGHT FOR NEUTRALITY.?

From the webcast, Verrone's statement starts at 1:46. Unfortunately you have to use RealPlayer to view what should be the easily playable, sharable, and downloadable clips from this Senate hearing. Since Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington owns RealPlayer, unfortunately this obstacle to fair use is unlikely to change any time soon.

Chair Daniel K. Inouye pronounces Verrone's name as "Varoni" at the start of his testimony. But his real problem is Senator Ted Stevens, of the "Internet is a series of tubes" fame, who continues to make stupid statements such as this one, which name drops several Ivy League universities in the name of legitimating nonsense positions that no one in academia holds, such as the concept that users don't want their right to access online resources without onerous fees or invisible barriers protected.

Full post as published by SIVACRACY .NET on May 01, 2008 (boomark / email).