Matt Yglesias

Tom Perrelli and Intellectual Property

Thomas Perelli is going to be the next Associate Attorney General of the United States. So let’s note three things about that:

• I don’t really know what the AAG’s job is.
• I don’t know anything about Perrelli’s stint as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General.
• It’s very difficult to infer a lawyer’s beliefs based on work he did representing clients other than the general observation that there’s a reason lawyers in general are held in low regard by the public.

But I was interested in the fact that in his private sector capacity at Jenner & Block, Perrelli is co-chair of the Entertainment and New Media Practice. Initially, I hoped that meant he was maybe doing interesting work representing device manufacturers whose capacity to innovate is being stifled by unduly restrictive DMCA provisions. Or maybe he represented some cutting-edge artists whose work is being blocked by big content owners. But no:

Mr. Perrelli regularly represents the recording industry in cutting-edge intellectual property, technology, and anti-piracy litigation. He has represented the recording industry in a host of cases arising under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), as well as in copyright infringement and digital piracy litigation. He has also represented the record industry and recording artists in a series of copyright royalty proceedings before the Copyright Royalty Board.

The good news is that since the recording industry has decided to adopt an overwhelmingly litigation-based approach to coping with technological change, rather than trying to be innovative in terms of their products or business practices, they probably put a lot of effort in making sure they’re hiring very good lawyers.