Surprisingly, given that he is a former Democrat Senator, Chris Dodd, Chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), has come out in support of the Republican Party’s platform language on intellectual property and Internet freedom:

“The Republican Party platform language strikes a very smart balance,” he said in a statement. “It emphasises the importance of us doing more as a nation to protect our intellectual property from online theft while underscoring the critical importance of protecting internet freedom. As the party points out, the internet has been for its entire existence a source of innovation, and it is intellectual property that helps drive that innovation. Copyright is the cornerstone of innovation; it allows creators to benefit from what they create. As Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor – herself once a Republican elected official – wrote, ‘[I]t should not be forgotten that the Framers intended copyright itself to be the engine of free expression. By establishing a marketable right to the use of one’s expression, copyright supplies the economic incentive to create and disseminate ideas.’”

“I agree wholeheartedly with my friends in the Republican Party that we must protect the free flow of information on the Internet while also protecting American innovators. It is imperative to our national economy and our national identity that we protect an Internet that works for everyone,” he declared.

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