Today is the last day to submit comments to the White House on its plans for Intellectual Property enforcement for the coming year. This is yet another act in the fight for the future of everything, and it's a relatively obscure and quiet one (as we expect many more will be, in the wake of the SOPA/PIPA blow up). A number of folks from the internet community are submitting letters to this request today, urging the WH to take a modern view of dealing with the challenges and opportunities in digital content creation, distribution and monetization. This afternoon, I am drafting a short response, which I'll post here when it's done. I'll be drawing a lot of inspiration from the terrific report by Professor Ian Hargreaves, which was commissioned by the UK last year: Digital Opportunity: A Review of Intellectual Property and Growth (PDF). This report is one of the best I've seen at laying out, in balanced and measured terms, what I consider to be an intelligent and progressive approach to IP management. In the meantime, I urge you to take a few minutes and respond to the White House survey. You don't need to write a long or detailed response, and it's important for the WH to hear from a large number of folks who understand the impact of IP enforcement on innovation and the web. Another point of reference is France's recent move to reduce its focus on strict enforcement as a way of dealing with piracy. Their work over the last three years has basically shown that the "three strikes" approach to policing piracy is both expensive and ineffective. This is an important precedent as the US considers how to allocate its efforts moving forward. Update: Here's the letter, signed by me, Brad Burnham, John Buttrick, Beth Noveck, and David Weinberger: Update 2: Here are a bunch of other letters submitted by internet folk:
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