Why the Obama Administration's Stance on Piracy Sidesteps Complicated Issues

Commerce Secretary Gary Locke was in Nashville, TN on Monday to speak to an audience of people mostly in the country music industry. He was there to reinforce the Obama administration's commitment to cracking down on music piracy on the Internet.  

Locke's trip can be seen more as a political move than a policy move, though it is useful to examine the different sides of this tough issue.   
 
In a political move, Locke opened with gratitude toward local elected officials—Congressman Jim Cooper (D-TN) who is co-sponsoring the Performing Rights Act and Tennessee Governor Bredesen who signed into law the Campus Piracy Bill which forces colleges in the state to take preventative measures against illegal file sharing. He also expressed gratitude toward the country musicians in the audience who came out to discuss the issue, and tugged on the local heartstrings of a city that is still recovering from the devastating floods this past Spring.  
 
As the Washington Post reports, total revenues for recorded music in the United States dropped from $14.6 billion in 1999 to $7.7 billion in 2008. Locke also made mention of the growth of the digital music downloads, which reached $3.1 billion in 2009, up 19 percent from the previous year. The drop appears huge, but it's hard to know exactly what it means. Did piracy have an impact on the music industry? Probably. But did it actually cost it $7 billion? That's yet to be seen.  
 
Locke made reference to the June discussions of "the Administration's recent release of a Joint Strategic Plan by the newly created Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator reflects the depth of our commitment to curb intellectual property piracy both here and abroad." Quoting Vice President Biden, Locke reiterated the administration's policy that " piracy is flat, unadulterated theft."  

It's hard to argue with that, in accordance with the letter of the law. We often like to justify piracy by claiming that the recording industry makes too much money off of us, or that we're only downloading music we wouldn't have bought anyway such that it won't hurt anybody. We've all done it at one time or another, but rationalize it as we may, it's still not legal to download music without paying for it. But that doesn't mean the approach being taken by the administration is the proper recourse, either. A proper defense shouldn't be, "spy on everyone and sue their pants off."  
 
Locke professed that "this copyright and patent framework needs to evolve to meet the evolving challenges of the 21st century." Yet the biggest problem is that we the concerned citizenry don't see what is being done. So while Locke might report that the "(Commerce) Department is also conducting a comprehensive review of the relationship among copyright policy, creativity, and innovation in the Internet economy," all we hear about is enormous fines being levied against poor grandmothers who have never heard of LimeWire.  
 
Media piracy is a complicated issue. Locke quoted President Obama, saying that, “single greatest asset is the innovation and ingenuity and creativity of the American people." This is a particularly interesting sentence because it addresses virtual goods: the immaterial products of patents, IP, and copyrightable materials. Not only does it involve the intangible, it increasingly is wrapped up in global policies and international law.  
 
What bothers me most about the speech is that Locke is appealing to a relatively wealthy group of people with its own powerful lobby. Not to say they don't deserve protection under the law, of course. But the music industry has been criticized as being a dinosaur afraid of innovation—one that only begrudgingly gave up DRM. Locke told the story of a letter sent to him by a songwriter who had depended on music royalties to "be a golden parachute to fund his retirement" that "had turned out to be a lead balloon." Given that 'golden parachute' is often used pejoratively, it's hard to identify with his plight.  
 
It would have been more productive had Locke come together with the members of the recording industry to discuss the plans of both sides. There were no plans of the industry's plans to innovate in light of the rapid technology shifts in media consumption. There was no discussion of whether piracy numbers were up or down (as has been extensively debated elsewhere) and why that might be. Without any actual discussion, it's hard to see Locke's visit to Nashville as anything more than reassuring a giant media industry that the government cares.  
 
Discussions of media piracy are always a touchy subject, inciting emotionally charged responses dealing with politics of all sorts. We'd like to know your take on Locke's visit and the issues at hand, but remember to be civil!
 
Image credit: Flickr user nkrbeta , Woot