It seems appointing those with vested influence to important committees is still not called corruption in some countries.
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140212/06500626194/another-friend-recording-industry-joins-house-subcommittee-courts-intellectual-property-internet.shtmlThere's a new ranking member of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet, and it's another copyright maximalist. Mel Watt, the former ranking member and one of SOPA's biggest supporters, has moved on to the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Before Mel Watt, there was subcommittee chair "Hollywood" Howard Berman, whose nickname clearly spells out which side of the copyright argument he espoused.
The newest ranking member is Jerry Nadler and he's virtually indistinguishable from his preceding party members. Nadler's previous legislative efforts have been the (unofficially titled) "RIAA Bailout Act of 2012" (in which he sought to raise satellite and cable radio royalty rates to match the exorbitant amount demanded of internet streaming sites) and an attempt to create a "resale right," which would give rights holders a cut any time a creation was resold. Nadler also supported extending copyright protection to fashion designers, something that industry has proven it doesn't actually need.
Now, he'll be advising Bob Goodlatte (another SOPA supporter), who's currently in the middle of a "comprehensive copyright review." The deck seems to be rather well-stacked in favor of the copyright industries at the moment, and if the past is anything to go by, this won't be changing in the future.
When the dice are loaded in this public way to favour to those on the copyright maximalist payroll its no surprise that many folks ignore the law as a bad faith bargain based on corrupt influence and not one designed to strike a fair deal for the electorate whom such committees are supposed to work for, is no deal at all.
