The creative community has a new voice in Washington. Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA) and Rep. Howard Coble (R-NC) have launched the Congressional Creative Rights Caucus, which aims to educate Congress and the public “about the importance of preserving and protecting the rights of the creative community in the U.S.” Chu represents the 27th District in Los Angeles County, which accounts for nearly 140,000 jobs in the motion picture industry. Predicated on the relationship between American film, music, and software industry and the country’s economic health, the CRC seeks to promote and protect the “copyrights, human rights, First Amendment rights, and property rights” of artists and creators. In a statement today, the DGA voiced support for the new venture: ““We welcome the creation of the Creative Rights Caucus, as a significant recognition of the importance of the creative community to American innovation, culture and the economy. The works created by DGA members – the films, television shows and commercials seen by billions around the world – are the result of their unique creative vision, hard work, and dedication to storytelling”.


They should rename this caucus the “Free Lunch for Copyright Trolls.” Another win for the dinosaurs who control content. Too bad there isn’t a caucus on innovation and new paradigms for content distribution in the Internet age.
Oh, yay, a caucus. That should fix things. Nothing like closing the barn door after the horse has left. Without copyright control & enforcement there is no way for people to be paid for their work. Residuals, backend, P&H — buh bye! Hollywood will no longer be a sustainable industry; making movies becomes an expensive hobby rather than an industry with above-average wages. The people who own copyright are not the ones looking for a “free lunch”, that would be the internet “distributors” who are making ad revenue $ by giving away other people’s work for free and are only now coming to terms with the fact that once they kill Hollywood good and dead they are going to have to actually pony up for their own content and marketing instead of riding the coattails of the studios. Innovation is one thing, but wholesale destruction of an industry that is responsible for a sizable chunk of GDP is just plain stupid. There is a huge difference between liberating taxpayer-funded scientific research from behind paywalls (yay for Aaron Swartz!) and distributing for free privately funded creative works before they even have a chance to break even (down with KimDotcom).
Maybe they can start by getting YouTube to take down every single infringing video from its skeezy website