Do you like music, art, literature, innovation, invention, creativity, entrepreneurship, and things like that?

Then you probably liked the document I mentioned a few weeks ago about problems with copyright and how to fix them. I considered it well thought-out and felt it proposed ideas that would improve the country. I was surprised to see it coming from the type of hard-core conservative that supports corporate welfare.

Until the group that originally distributed the document disowned it and took it down from their site. (here’s the original document)

I don’t know if you follow copyright or patent policy, but as a writer, inventor, writer and holder of a half-dozen patents, and one who enjoys culture, I find the topic incredibly important. I find the direction these policies are going hurting all these areas in favor of entrenched business and more monopoly.

People who haven’t thought about the issues usually say something like “But people deserve compensation for their work,” demonstrating they miss the point.

The Scandal

Now the group the created and then hid the document is firing a low-level employee who apparently created it.

I thought Ars Technica summarized the firing well:

The memo was widely hailed by tech policy scholars and public interests advocates. However, it raised the ire of content industry lobbyists, who applied pressure on the RSC to retract the memo. The organization did so within 24 hours of its release. Khanna’s firing will only further raise the memo’s profile.

His firing is a surprising move for a party that has been looking for ways to attract younger voters. Copyright reform enjoys broad popularity among Internet-savvy young people, and taking up the cause could have attracted the support of thousands of youthful redditors. But evidently, Hollywood’s lobbying muscle was too powerful for the Republican leadership to resist.

A rival appears?

I found a few people suggesting the fired guy publicly stand by his document and run for office. I like that thought.

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