It is a pet theory of mine that this whole IP thing at bottom is an enforcement issue--an issue that academics (for example) are not all that interested in grappling with because it is at bottom related to police work, that blue-collar, not-very-abstract stuff.

And so I noted yesterday's TechDaily article by Sarah Stirland on a bill to improve enforcement of IP rights in Russia and China, by establishing IP offices there, for one thing. And further enhancements are in the wind... the appointment of an IP tzar, the taking up of piracy as an issue before the WTO. All signs of the growing import of IP. BUT I wonder if this type of effort, establishing offices, and so on, can possibly be even a drop in the bucket of the sort of effort that would be needed to make compliance with IP laws the rule rather than the exception. It seems to me that entirely new types of enforcement suitable to decentralized networks, entirely new types of funding for enforcement (private?), and entirely new forms of enforcement (not harsh, perhaps not even criminal, but certain), are needed. Hmmm. Ambitious. Perhaps better just to get the DRM really good.

None of this is going to be popular.

posted by Solveig Singleton @ 11:25 AM | International, Legislation and Legislators

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