Today the Senate Commerce Committee voted 24-1 to approve Julius Genachowski as the next Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission; recently Mr. Genachowski gave a very strong statement to that Committee on the importance of copyright enforcement and how he at the FCC would respect the rights of creators.

The full US Senate is expected to make his nomination oficial shortly. Also approved for another term by the Committee was the very capable FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell. Genachowski is a former FCC staffer, a tech industry veteran, and a friend of President Obama’s from their days at Harvard Law School.

I covered the FCC for a decade as a reporter, through four chairmen, and from everything I’ve read, I think Mr. Genachowski has the potential to be excellent. In particular, he seems to have a thoughtfulness and reflective nature I also saw in former Chairmen William Kennard and Michael Powell, two very strong leaders.

I also am grateful for Mr. Genachowski’s endorsement of creators and copyright in comments he gave recently. It’s probably best for me to provide a direct quotation from the question-and-answer Genachowski submitted as part of his confirmation hearing:

Question 4. NET NEUTRALITY: Mr. Genachowski, over the past few years there has been debate of whether the FCC should adopt a “fifth principle of non-discrimination” to Internet service providers, essentially prohibiting them from discriminating among traffic on their networks. Do you believe an Internet service providers should have the ability to violate this sort of non- discrimination principle in order to stop illegal content (child pornography, unauthorized copyrighted material) from traveling across its network?

Answer. Existing FCC precedent makes clear that net neutrality is about protecting the right of consumers to access lawful content, services and applications of their choice.

I believe in the importance of enforcing federal law on the Internet, including child pornography and intellectual property laws.

Child pornography has no place in a civilized society, offline or online. It is a grave and all-too-prevalent threat to our children.

Illegal copyright infringement is a threat to our economy, with harm measured in the billions of dollars, representing lost wages and lost jobs for American workers. It is a threat to the creativity that our copyright laws are designed to protect and encourage, and a threat to a significant contributor to our economy and U.S. global competitiveness.

It is vital that illegal conduct be curtailed on the Internet. I do not interpret the goals of net neutrality as preventing network operators from taking reasonable steps to block unlawful content.

As a father of two and a champion of creators, I honestly can’t imagine a better answer to that question.

We at the Copyright Alliance continue to be impressed with the bullish support for copyrights demonstrated by Obama Administration leaders such as Vice President Joseph Biden, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk.

We have also been impressed with President Obama’s Administration appointments, and joined with 40 other nonprofits, corporations, trade associations, unions, artists’ alliances and think tanks in expressing our enthusiasm in a letter to President Obama.

When the next FCC chairman says “[i]llegal copyright infringement is a threat to our economy” and represents “lost wages and lost jobs for American workers” he is not only right, but he’s reflecting his President’s focus on improving the economy. When he says infringement “is a threat to the creativity that our copyright laws are designed to protect and encourage, and a threat to a significant contributor to our economy and U.S. global competitiveness,” he is echoing every point we reiterate here at the Copyright Alliance blog.

And when he says “I do not interpret the goals of net neutrality as preventing network operators from taking reasonable steps to block unlawful content,” he echoes network neutrality champions such as U.S. Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), author of legislation in the last Congress.

To be honest with you, the only folks I have seen who refute this position on its face are some folks online who are agitated but not part of the policy process here in Washington. So I feel good knowing that the key figures in this debate are all on the same page, aimed at ensuring new legislation or regulation doesn’t inadvertently create a safe harbor for infringement.

At the end of the day, however, Mr. Genachowski’s interpretation may vary from an ISP general counsel concerned about facing an FCC proceeding, or a court reviewing an enforcement proceeding. That’s why our public officials need to ensure that if further action is taken in this area, this very reasonable interpretation is clear to all parties, now and going forward, in some concrete way.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, June 18th, 2009 at 5:31 pm by Patrick Ross and is filed under 1, FCC, Obama, capitol hill, economy, network neutrality, p2p, piracy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.