The Verge has an article on the White House’s latest intellectual property initiative, the “Joint Strategic Plan”. (Sounds like a blueprint for a war, doesn’t it? Well, given what the Internet’s done for piracy, that may be about right.)

The plan covers patent enforcement, trade secret theft, and using trade policy to promote enforcement of US IP rights abroad. But it also deals with copyright violations on a smaller scale, with suggestions like establishing copyright small claims courts, to allow quick resolution of civil infringement cases that would otherwise be too small to be worth filing.

But it’s not all thou-shalt-nots. The plan also discusses adding emphasis to all the thou-can-if-thou-wantest-to provisions of copyright law, so that authors are better able to judge when people are making fair use of their works:

In order to make fair use more accessible to the authors of the 21st century, ease confusion about permissible uses, and thereby encourage the production of a greater variety of creative works, the U.S. Copyright Office, working in consultation with the Administration, will publish and maintain an index of major fair use decisions, including a summary of the holdings and some general questions and observations that may in turn guide those seeking to apply the decisions to their own situations.

Good for them—though I would point out that since Fair Use is a defense, not a right, the only way it can truly be adjudicated is for the author to sue and a court to say, “No, that’s fair use.” This index might hint to authors when suing would probably be a waste of their time and money, but nothing’s stopping them from going ahead and suing anyway.

It also mentions trying to change public attitudes toward infringing activities, with campaigns to “inform the public about the dangers of counterfeits and piracy,” as well as issues less germane to this blog such as counterfeit medicine or buying from fake online pharmacies. Yeah, good luck with that. As long as you have things like, say, all the biggest movers in a whole industry colluding to force consumers to pay more, you’re going to have people who know perfectly well the “dangers of piracy” but feel justified in sticking it to them anyway. (And for that matter, sometimes even institutions who should know better end up “pirating” works by accident!) The fact that it’s apparently next to impossible to develop an anti-piracy education campaign without coming off as horribly patronizing and/or giving all your customers the impression that you think they’re thieves is another fly in the ointment.

The plan’s writers hope that companies can get together to come up with best practices policies and agreements, though some observers express concern that this additional layer of extra-legal policies might lead to more confusion or bureaucracy. And, perhaps in a sign of the next big piracy thing on the horizon, copyright issues surrounding 3D printing also get a nod.

In the end, I guess it’s nice to see the level of thought that went into the provisions of the plan centering around giving consideration to educating creators about fair use as much as educating the public about piracy. Still, I’m doubtful that much can be done to stem piracy until and unless the root causes can be addressed—that is, until media companies can find a way to make their works cheaply and easily available for instant purchase. As I’ve pointed out elsewhere, when the music industry did this it dramatically decreased music piracy, as piracy just wasn’t worth the extra time, hassle, and risk when you could get any song you wanted for 99 cents, or stream it for free.

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