Originally published July 8 2005
Rep. Boucher takes side of consumers in file-trading debate
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Wired Magazine features an interview with Virginia representative Rick Boucher, who has consistently sided with consumers when deciding on legislation that affects file sharing or copyright law.
Rep. Rick Boucher is a rarity in Congress when it comes to digital media.
He's taken the side of consumers -- not Hollywood and the music industry -- in the sundry controversies surrounding digital entertainment.
When it comes to file sharing, Boucher says he'll fight attempts to stifle it.
He says the balance of copyright law has tipped too far toward the entertainment companies' interests, hampering consumers' rights to use digital media.
While other lawmakers have long-standing relationships with the entertainment industry, whose chief concern is piracy, Boucher sees his pro-technology policies as a way to further education, communication and job creation.
Boucher recently stopped by the Wired News office for a chat about broadband, copyright and the continued clashes between the entertainment and technology industries over peer-to-peer networks.
Wired News: The MGM v. Grokster case now before the Supreme Court has put file sharing in the spotlight.
Rick Boucher: First of all I am going to fight, tooth and nail, any effort to hobble file sharing.
Getting away from centralized servers and going to peer-to-peer communications all across the map means the communications are faster and much more user-friendly.
then you may not circumvent that for any purpose.
And so the creator of content can take everything to a pay-per-use (format) and that means nothing is free on the library shelf anymore.
This is why librarians so strongly support my bill, they see that coming.
History teaches us that when industry has a particular power, if they can make money using that power, that's what they'll do.
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