Tom Giovanetti

You might want to update your gallery of CopyLeft heroes, according to an article entitled "Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, and other digital pioneers sour on 'pay what you want' music"

There's a strong and provocative piece in the Australian press today by novelist and author Linda Jaivin on how the proposed changes will cause economic losses to authors.

This morning, the House Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet held its second in a series of hearings that form the beginning of a review of current copyright law.

The list of witnesses for Thursday's Judiciary Committee hearing on copyright and innovation has been released.

Congressman Amash has offered an amendment to the Defense Appropriations Act (H.R. 2397) that places reasonable funding limits for NSA spying activities.

We've just gotten word that the next hearing in the Judiary Commitee's series of hearings on copyright review has been scheduled for next Thursday, July 25, at 9:30 am in 2141 Rayburn. The theme of this hearing is "Innovation in America: The Role of Copyrights."

This week marks the initial negotiating session for the new Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) agreement, which is a new free trade agreement between the U.S. and the European Union. And IPI will be there.

Texas Governor Rick Perry has today vetoed SB 346, the bill that supposedly was designed to increase transparency in Texas elections, but really was designed to punish Texans for Fiscal Responsibility for holding Republicans accountable for their RINO ways.

There has been a huge problem over the past few years with municipalities dragging their feet on approving permits to allow cell phone towers to be constructed, or even to allow new transmitters to be added to existing towers or to buildings.

The simplest observation about the Benghazi emails is that the Obama administration spent a lot more time discussing how they were going to spin the situation than they did deciding whether or not to try to save American lives under attack by terrorists.

What was interesting during the hearing was to hear at least one of the participants, Jon Baumgarten, admit that the Copyright Principles Project (CPP) was very much skewed toward the interests of those who see copyright as an obstacle, and skewed against the interests of creators and owners.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) has announced that his committee will be undertaking a “comprehensive review of U.S. copyright law,” and they’re beginning this afternoon with a hearing.

Today, the Office of the United States Trade Representative has released its annual "Special 301" report which details the "adequacy and effectiveness of U.S. trading partners’ protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights (IPR)."

Last Thursday IPI was honored to once again host the major World IP Day policy event in Washington, DC during the observance of World IP Day.

Much attention has been given to the Myriad Genetics case recently argued before the Supreme Court, where Myriad Genetics claims a patent to not only a DNA test, but also to the isolated and refined DNA itself.