Rep. Rick Boucher Shares Thoughts on Legislative Initiatives for New Congress

On Feb. 2, 2007, Rep. Rick Boucher (D., Va.) spoke at Stanford Law School as part of a speaker series sponsored by the Stanford Law and Policy Review ("SLPR"). This year, SLPR chose to sponsor a series of articles addressing "The Ethical Dimensions of Technology Policy". Their objective in soliciting articles was to broaden the scope of typical academic treatments of contemporary IP issues to uncover the important normative and ethical issues often swept under the rug in papers. SLPR hoped to elicit discussions of privacy, fairness and equality, universal access, and other issues whcih help frame policy decisions on copyright, patent and other legislative initiatives.

Rep. Boucher wrote a very interesting paper advocating for the need to protect fair use and put a stop to industry attacks on the doctrine. Long an advocate for "user's rights", Boucher has consistently provided leadership and initiative guiding American technology policy. As a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Rep. Boucher serves on the Telecommunications and the Internet subcommittee. Rep. Boucher is also a member of the Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee. Rep. Boucher has established himself as an authority of federal policy for the Internet and Information Technology.

As a co-founder and current co-chair of the Congressional Internet Caucus, Rep. Boucher supports consumer and user rights by defending fair uses of copyrighted works and favoring network neutrality and consumer protections. He has worked to galvanize many intellectual property, telecommunications and Internet legislative initiatives. For example, in the 102nd Congress, Rep. Boucher authored the law that allowed the first commercial traffic on the Internet, which brought impressive changes to electronic commerce, e-government initiatives, and improved educational and telehealth opportunities. More recently, Rep. Boucher introduced legislation aimed at reforming the federal Universal Service Fund and hopes to maintain prices for telephone services at an accessible rate for rural Americans. Furthermore, dating back to the 107th Congress, legislation introduced by Rep. Boucher focused on allowing individuals to keep their free use of digital media at home, efforts that have been supported by diverse parties, ranging from technology companies to consumer groups. Rep. Boucher is devoted to the cause of allowing the fair use of lawfully acquired digital media on the part of libraries, universities, and individuals.

Rep. Boucher mentioned two interesting observations during his remarks. First, he stressed that patent reform would be the first big IP-related legislative initiative for the new congress. He emphasized that protecting independent and underfunded inventors was a priority, and criticized the growing problem of patent trolls as one of the targets of new legislative initatives.

The other initiative he mentioned concern protection for new hand-held satellite radio devices. He noted that congress has already faced significant pressure to pass legislation either outlawing or significantly curtailing the availability of these devices. It should be no surprise that the lobbyists pushing for such reforms are the same lobbyists who fought for the DMCA and remain in bed with the entertainment industry.

What I found particularly interesting about his remarks was the fact that Congress continues to take a very limited view approach for how to defend fair use and user's rights in the halls of Congress. While a hand-held satellite radio seems like a very cool thing and one worth protecting to ensure consumers have the opportunity to enjoy music with that degree of convenience, wouldn't a more generalized approach toward dealing with the lobbyists in Washington be more fruitful?

Every time I've had the chance to see Boucher speak, he reemphasizes the same points regarding the importance of repealing the anti-circuvention provision of the DMCA, pushing for at least the initial phases of providing nationwide wireless access, and defending the bounds of fair use. Yet, in each instance, the initiatives he mentions he's focused on at the time concern these piecemeal protections for specific goods and services.

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