President Barack Obama has responded to the challenges of the current digital age--particularly, the national concern for protecting intellectual property--by nominating Danny Marti to be the new United States' intellectual property enforcement coordinator, or “piracy czar.”
Marti works in Kilpatrick Townsend’s Washington, D.C. office, where he served as the company's intellectual asset acquisitions and transactions team co-chair from 2010 to 2013 and is currently a managing partner. The Emory University law school graduate has covered several cases on intellectual property matters, like computer fraud and abuse, copyright and cybersquatting.
The IPEC position was first established in 2008 as a national attempt to coordinate with other government agencies, upholding the administration’s policy on intellectual property and piracy. Victoria Espinel, who stepped down in August 2013, was the first official to hold the position; if Marti accepts the nomination, he will be the second.
Marti’s nomination has been widely appraised by different organizations within the industry. Senator Chris Dodd, the chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America, is amongst those officials particularly pleased:
“The IPEC plays a critical role in promoting intellectual property as a driver of our nation’s culture and economy. Danny’s impressive record of commitment to enforcing IP rights in the Internet age makes him a particularly strong choice. We urge the Senate to confirm him without delay for this important job."
The Recording Industry of America added their praise in a statement on The Hollywood Reporter, stating that "for music specifically, we are an industry that has tossed out the rulebook and reinvented ourselves as a digital business. But one rule remains the same — that intellectual protection helps fuels music creativity...We look forward to working with Mr. Marti to help foster the genius of America’s creative community.”
Of course some within the creative community might point out that overzealous enforcement of copyright law can also work against musical creativity, privileging the rights of corporate catalog-holders over the freedom of younger artists to experiment with sampling technology, among other forms of creativity. By this light, the RIAA's endorsement might suggest that Marti's appointment is yet another example of a regulator who is overly cozy with the industry he is expected to regulate. On the other hand, everyone who holds an industry job benefits on some level if the music industry is able to profit on its output, especially in the overseas market where the main #1 competitor for American pop music is pirated American pop music. The trick, of course, is in identifying the line where 'zealous' becomes 'overzealous' in tackling this two-sided issue so we'll have to watch the new Czar's moves closely to see how this appointment will effect the music industry at large--if at all.
spotted at HR
