IP Politics in the USA

As everyone nervously watches the countdown to a new Canadian copyright reform bill, it is worth noting that IP politics is starting to enter the US Presidential race, as reported by IP Watch.

Obama's comments as reported by IP Watch might be seen as particularly interesting to Canadians:

Obama, who was the earliest candidate in the race to put together an innovation platform, called for [pdf] a similar degree of balance, noting that “as policymakers, we are in a constant process of examining our laws to ensure that the protections we place on intellectual property are sufficient to encourage invention without hindering innovation that builds on previous work or unfairly limiting consumers from using the goods they purchase in a way that is fair to creators.”

Here's Obama's full quote from CNET:

Obama: I would support, in concept, allowing Americans to make a single backup copy of a digital product they have purchased. And I think the market is moving in the direction of greater consumer freedom.

As policymakers, we are in a constant process of examining our laws to ensure that the protections we place on intellectual property are sufficient to encourage invention without hindering innovation that builds on previous work or unfairly limiting consumers from using the goods they purchase in a way that is fair to creators.

HK