If you were president, how much more imbalanced could you make the copyright laws?

The Copyright Alliance (a coalition of entertainment industry giants including the RIAA, MPAA, Viacom, Disney and others) is urging presidential candidates to articulate their stance on a set of ridiculously loaded questions, aiming to further their agenda of strengthening the already overbearing US copyright laws. The news has been widely reported but I liked Techdirt’s coverage in particular (despite the rabid opening paragraphs). Each question is listed, as posed by the Alliance, and then deftly answered (or ridiculed, as appropriate). For example:

How would you promote the progress of science and creativity, as enumerated in the U.S. Constitution, by upholding and strengthening copyright law and preventing its diminishment?

Well, first, it might help to point out that the U.S. publishing industry was initially built on extremely loose copyrights, so the very idea that strengthening copyright law is necessary to promote progress of science and creativity is provably false. Even the biggest defender of copyrights these days (and a backer of Ross’ organization), Disney, owes much of its early success to being able to use the characters others created. That, alone, should be argument enough for a stronger public domain, rather than stronger copyright.

Amen. Hopefully, some of the candidates call them out on these bogus questions and have the sense (and guts) to take a more balanced stance.

In any case, the article is pretty entertaining, and some good debate takes place in the comments. Check it out.