US Chamber Of Commerce Wants More Censorship, More IP Protectionism

by Mike Masnick
Techdirt
Feb. 11, 2011

The US Chamber of Commerce is becoming an increasingly sad and deluded shell of an organization. Its main focus these days seems to be about creating protectionist, anti-free market, anti-innovation policies that protect its largest companies from competition and newer, more efficient tools and companies. It's predictable, but sad. The latest is that it has sent a letter to President Obama with its "intellectual property agenda," which could be simplified as "more of it, please."

It asks the President to expand the role of the White House's IP Czar, whose existence mainly exists due to the Chamber of Commerce using totally debunked stats to claim that the job was necessary. And, of course, it was no surprise the other day when the IP Czar's first report was more or less a bullet point list of everything the Chamber of Commerce wants. It's as if they have their own office in the White House, so of course they want that expanded.

The report does not mention ACTA, but does mention the new, even more secretive and more ridiculous Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), which of course the Chamber of Commerce wants to include only "the highest IP standards." Along those lines, the Chamber of Commerce also wants the Feds to send more of its copyright cops around the world to enforce US copyright laws, and to put more enforcement pressure around the infamous joke known as the USTR's "Special 301" report (which is basically a way for the lobbyists to "launder" a list of countries they don't like, and have the USTR list them as violating US IP laws based on little more than what lobbyists claim).

Finally, of course, the Chamber of Commerce supports blatant censorship and a lack of due process, in praising efforts to censor websites without any adversarial hearing, just because there might be some infringement somewhere else, but that site links to it.

Notice a pattern? Basically, the Chamber of Commerce supports policies that act as protectionism for a few large US companies, no matter what the overall harm is to the rest of the economy. Protectionist policies harm the economy and the pace of innovation. Censorship and a lack of due process should be seen as an anathema to core values of the United States. It's a shame that an organization that often presents itself as being about supporting American values and capitalism goes in such an opposite direction to protect its own special interests.