Ed Markey: “I strongly support passing this bill which implements the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) treaty. As the…”

“I strongly support passing this bill which implements the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) treaty. As the digital revolution sweeps over industries and countries it will provide new opportunities for market growth and innovation, easier access to remote information, and new distribution channels for products and services. The United States clearly leads the world in software products such as computer programs, movies, music, books and other multimedia products. In a post-GATT, post-NAFTA environment--in which we have made an implicit national economic decision to essentially let low-end jobs go and migrate to developing countries--we have an obligation as policymakers to ensure that we establish the climate in which America garners the lion's share of the high end, knowledge-based jobs of the new global economy. Because digital technology facilitates an almost effortless ability to transmit digitized software information across national borders and also permits exact copies of such work to be made, it is vitally important that the United States take steps to update existing laws by cyberspace. There's no question that protecting the interests of copyright holders will mean that the content community will feel more secure in releasing their works into a digital environment.”