During his recent visit to Hollywood, Attorney General John Ashcroft unveiled federal plans for what he called the "strongest, most aggressive legal assault against intellectual property crime in our nation's history."
He also made a frightening association — because intellectual property theft can be so lucrative, he said, it "risks becoming a potential source of financing for terrorists." He did not cite specific examples of a link between the two.
Technologists and copyright reform advocates like Stanford University law professor Lawrence Lessig say that's cause for concern.
On today's edition of the NPR program "Day to Day", I speak with Lessig — and government officials like LA Mayor James Hahn and California congressman Xavier Becerra –about the new "war on piracy" being waged by federal, state, and local agencies in partnership with entertainment industry groups such as the RIAA and MPAA.
Link to archived audio for today's program, Link to NPR Day to Day home. Noah Shachtman suggests an alternate headline: Link
