Rep. Sonny Bono speaks at NPC on online copyright

[declan@well.com (Declan McCullagh)]

Date: Tue, 9 Jul 1996 15:07:41 -0500
To: fight-censorship+@andrew.cmu.edu
From: declan@well.com (Declan McCullagh)
Subject: Rep. Sonny Bono speaks at NPC on online copyright

I just got back from hearing Rep. Sonny Bono (R-Calif) speak at the
National Press Club this afternoon.

The topic was "Intellectual Property" -- timely enough since Bono sits
on the House subcommittee considering the online copyright bill
(HR2441) I've railed against in the past. As a former member of the
entertainment industry, he's a stauch supporter of that ill-advised
legislation, which is opposed by the Digital Future Coalition.

Given the topic of his speech, I kinda expected him to talk about,
well, maybe intellectual property.

I was wrong. He spent most of an hour rambling incoherently about his
life ("I had to lug beef to get started in the music business") and how
he really wasn't a politican after all. Not to put too fine a point on
it, he's a bit of a dimwit. (Someone sitting at my table told me that a
recent Washingtonian mag dubbed him the dumbest member of Congress.)
Bono is one of the few politians that could make Bob Dole sound
intelligent and eloquent.

I brought a friend along to the banquet. (Since I'm a member of the NPC
-- actually the first cyber-journalist to be admitted to the club -- I
can bring one guest.) She slipped me a note halfway through: "He is
honest. If he were smarter, and honest, probably no one would listen to
him."

She's right. Bono did seem honest. He was truly convinced, in some
kind of inchoate way, that intellectual property piracy online was
really a problem. So he supports this wretched legislation without
grokking what it would do to the Net.

Unfortunately, the question I submitted ("What are the major concerns
the entertainment industry has regarding copyright and the Net?") didn't
get asked, so instead we were treated to hearing Bono talk about Cher.
"I hope she doesn't put on any more tattoos." And if he'd sing a song
for the audience: "I've got you babe!"

*sigh*

-Declan