If you are trying to influence Europeans, flatter them by telling them what they do will make a difference to saving the planet.

If you are trying to influence Americans, tell them it will make them money.

Mabey I am just getting cynical in my old age...

You raise a fair concern. However, I wanted to inject some Realpolitik into our understanding of (mostly US) politics and policy discussions. I am not advocating a position on this legislation--it is more that I am bringing you a story about how domestic renewable incentives (a good thing for many in my estimation) can be conflated with IP concerns (a good thing for a few). Just the fact that the two are tied up together is fascinating to me from a framing point of view...politics, she is a complex beast.

If we cannot find a way to come together to incentivise wise steps for our future with the evidence about our future that we have right now, well, it makes me shudder...

US ownership of important intellectual property

Property de la Intellectual ya say?

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h110-4279

It would allow the Feds to seize hardware that has even one file coming from 'dubious origins,' e.g. downloaded from P2P. If passed into law, the bill would establish an Intellectual Property Enforcement Division within the office of the Deputy Attorney General. Rep. John Conyers says the goal is to 'prioritize intellectual property protection to the highest level of our government.'"

So ya all might wanna look over your machines/media and make sure its purged of that nasty unlicensed IP if this gets passed. Your concern over IP may get negated if enough people are fined into non-existance when protecting IP in the US of A.