----- Original Message -----
From: Weisman, Jonathan <******@wsj.com>
To: Tomasini, AnnMarie; Alexander, Elizabeth
Sent: Tue Apr 21 20:26:59 2009
Subject: VPOTUS POOL REPORT
Biden Pool Report
News, such as it is: VPOTUS promises more resources to police and prosecute intellectual property piracy and an intellectual property czar.
In the sumptuous, newly renovated Great Hall of the National Portrait Gallery, VPOTUS came to praise the Motion Picture Association of America, not to bury it. The White House will leave the jawboning to Detroit and Wall Street. Aside from a very glancing reference to gratuitous drug scenes, the VPOTUS was all praise for an industry that MPAA President Dan Glickman said employs 2.5 million Americans and supplies the economy with a $13.6 billion trade surplus.
The occasion was the Jack Valenti Humanitarian Award, named after the MPAA's late, legendary leader. Seemingly half the Senate was in attendance, including Richard Durban, Sheldon White House, Frank Lautenberg, Judd Gregg, Amy Klobuchar, Patrick Leahy, Roger Wicker and Ben Nelson. VPOTUS called Sen. Gregg, the would-be Commerce Secretary "one of the smartest guys in the United States Senate who I have great respect for."
"And Ben Nelson is here," he added, "someone I don't have any respect for."
It went like that pretty much all night. VPOTUS was flanked by teleprompters but didn't seem to consult them at all.
He delivered a "simple message from the president and from me: We get it. We understand the immense value of your films and all of your art, and its effect on the economy, and, I might add, on the national character."
"That Hollywood sign shadow stretches all the way across America," he said. "You provide jobs that a middle class family can live on."
The meat of the speech was piracy, not the Somali kind but the kind featured at the beginning of your DVDs.
"It's pure theft, stolen from the artists and quite frankly from the American people as consequence of loss of jobs and as a consequence of loss of income," VPOTUS said.
As an aside out of nowhere, he said, "I voted for public housing all my life. I never knew it would be this good."
Then he made news of sorts, saying the White House understands the film industry needs more resources dedicated to FBI enforcement of anti-piracy laws and more resources for prosecution.
He promised the White House "will find the right person for intellectual property czar," a vow that clinched the Obama White House as a political machine that has created more czars than the Romanovs.
He blasted a Chinese enforcement regime that "remains largely ineffective."
He also singled out Canada as a country that needs stronger laws on intellectual property.
Bad for us, but also bad for them, for their intellectual dvlpt
In contrast, India has done a much better job combating piracy. As a result, "Bollywood is a pulsing, thriving industry."
To the Chinese, he said, "Allowing this systemic piracy to continue smothers their own industry. ... They're strangling their own creative juices."
VPOTUS than went into his favorite films, singling out "Chariots of Fire," specifically a scene when one of the runners tells his wife, "I can't win. I won't run"
"If you don't run, you can't win," she replies.
"If you don't run you can't win. That's the motto for this entire administration," VPOTUS added.
"I think sometimes you underestimate the impact you have, and not just entertaining but uplifting," he concluded. "I wish I could inspire the way you do."