Congress, no one cares about knock-offs!
Filed under: Style in the News, Celebrities with Style
Women's Wear Daily today reports that Congress is currently considering so-called designer knock-off legislation. This bill, introduced by Bob Goodlatte (R., Va.) and Bill Delahunt (D., Mass.), would allow companies and designers to register designs for copyright protection lasting three yeas. The measure would also create penalties for designers or companies who then choose to copy these registered designs. Fines for offenders would range from $250,000, or $5 for each copied item, whichever number turned out to be higher.Now before I continue, there are a few things I'd like to put on the table. This is a blog about fashion. It goes without saying that we're all basically duty-bound to suspend any major questions over whether or not fashion is worthwhile pursuit.
But today I'm afraid I'm going to have to let my true feelings show:
ARE YOU KIDDING ME, PEOPLE?
There's a war going on, an immigration impasse, a looming energy crisis, 46.6 million Americans that don't have health insurance and 37 million who live in poverty. New home sales dropped more last month than they have in any other month over the last 20 years; our trade deficit is sky-rocketing; our national debt is out of control; global warming is already happening; New Orleans is still a disaster and, oh yeah, no one likes us anymore.
And somehow the most important thing on the congressional docket is a bi-partisan bill that panders to a bunch of wealthy, whiny, myopic designers who now want laws to keep middle and lower class consumers out of their clothes?
Uh, yeah, that makes total sense.
Laura 4-27-2007 @ 4:55PM
Right On!
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Tricia 4-27-2007 @ 7:00PM
Your comments in this post don't make sense to me - only because the fact that congress is considering it doesn't mean the most important thing on their docket - as a matter of fact, this bill has been around for a little bit over a year now (first introduced at the end of March 2006) - and isn't the first bill that has tried to give designers a bit more copyright protection. I really don't see how this could be their main concern - it's just being considered. And considering the size of the fashion industry in the US, and the fact that they're constitutionally obligated to be concerned with things such as copyrights - of course it's gonna be considered. And it'll probably still be a matter of consideration for awhile. Relax.
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