Commentary by Kay B. Day
The SG Standard, said Gibson, is the best-selling Gibson of all time.[Photo from Gibson website.]The Gibson brand needs no introduction to anyone who’s ever played a guitar, and the factory in Nashville is a valuable employer providing jobs to approximately 2,800 Americans. But armed with an expansion of the Lacey Act, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service raided the plant on Tuesday.
At stake: “wood procurement,” said a statement from Gibson. The Tennessean (Nashville) theorized about the raid’s link to exotic hardwoods: “But some exotic hardwoods traditionally used in making premium guitars, such as rosewood from the rain forests of Madagascar and Brazil, have been banned from commercial trade because of environmental concerns under a recently revised federal law.”
In 2008 Congress expanded the Lacey Act. Here’s an example of the depth of that expansion. According to the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture 'Facts about the Amended Lacey Act,' “As of May 22, 2008, if a tree is illegally harvested, made into wood products, and then exported to the United States, anyone who imported, exported, transported, sold, received, acquired, or purchased the wood products made from that illegal timber, who knew or should have known that the wood was illegal, may be prosecuted for violation of the Lacey Act.”
Few would dispute the value of wise forestry practices. But few would agree the language is sound in the provision cited. The very phrase “who knew or SHOULD have known…” permits subjectivity in the application of federal law. In addition the law as applied in the Gibson raid appears to target American companies rather than the source of the product or the wholesale distributor of the product.
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Monday, November 23, 2009 at 11:55AM 
Image of Planet Earth, courtesy of NASA.Commentary by Kay B. Day
