A Wired article today tells of a new PAC that's a David to Hollywood's Goliath when it comes to copyright issues.

With ludicrious demands from Hollywood like forcing people to watch commercials and HBO's getting nervous about people videotaping their latest greatest series, it's refreshing to find an organization that is for a reasonable solution to protecting copyrights without undercutting the rights of free expression.

"Copyright is supposed to be a balance in the Constitution," said David Alpert, president of IPac, which launched about a month before the 2004 election. "The government should not be in the business of preventing technology changes just because some companies are afraid it might hurt their existing business models."

A lot of this got stirred up recently over the nasty legal threats over Woodie Guthrie's This Land is Your Land -- which was quite ironic, really, given the sentiments of the song. Where do you think Guthrie would be siding today?

As a copyright holder who wants to see the creators of intellectual property protected, it seems to me that Hollywood has been behaving like a gaggle of dragons, eager to burn anyone who draws their ire. Or, as an IPac blog entry draws from a Washington Post piece, "It's all about hating your customers.":

The movie industry is following the path paved by the music business, filing hundreds of lawsuits against consumers who enjoy their products so much that they want to share them with friends. Instead of adapting to the new rules of the road, these companies wield a legal sledgehammer to bash their best potential customers. (Interestingly, book publishers don't sue public libraries. They learned long ago that their challenge was to make the paid product more attractive and convenient than the free one.)

IPac there is quoting The Washington Post (emphasis added).

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