FC: Georgetown law "Movester" discussion TONIGHT 8 pm; filtering

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

[I did go to the pro-filtering press conference -- what fun! With all the 
talk of bestiality, hardcore Net-sex, and torture-snuff films on the Net, 
it was '95 all over again. When Donna Rice Hughes starts talking dirty and 
the Family Research Council waxes wroth over their soft-core "what I saw 
online" report, you know you're either watching the Playboy Channel or 
attending a press conference in the Longworth House Office Building. You 
can bet some of the groups -- oh, yes, you know who you are -- reused some 
of their scaremongery handouts from the CDA days. I took mostly B&W analog 
wideangle shots but some digital photos I'll put online later tonight. 
--Declan]

***********

Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2001 08:27:28 -0500
To: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
From: Marc Rotenberg <rotenberg () epic org>
Subject: Georgetown Law Tonight - "Movester"
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed"
X-UIDL: 0e7219f2d875bef5f261aa44d646a935


Online Music:
Intellectual Property or Internet Piracy?

Moderator:
Seth Waxman, Former Solicitor General

WHEN:   March 20, 2001 at 8:00 p.m.

WHERE:  The Moot Court Room
Georgetown University Law Center
600 New Jersey Ave., N.W. , Washington, DC, 20001

WHAT:   A panel discussion regarding music and video sharing and
its implications for the music industry, internet use, privacy
rights and copyright law.  National attention on the Napster
litigation attests to the widespread interest in the debate.
Members of the panel will discuss this issue within the context
of a hypothetical fact pattern fashioned by the GULC faculty.

Confirmed Panelists

Manus Cooney, Counsel for Napster;  Former General Counsel for
  Judiciary Committee
Johnny Deep, CEO of Aimster
DeDe Ferrell, Vice President of Government Affairs at Viacom
Mitch Glaser, RIIA, Senior Vice President of Legislative Affairs
Sam Kaplan, Attorney in Napster Case
Harry Katz, Senior Litigation Partner at Arnold & Porter
Steven Levy, Technology Correspondent, Newsweek
John Podesta, Former Chief of Staff for President Clinton
Marc Rotenberg, Director of Electronic Privacy Information Center;
  GULC Adjunct Law Professor
Noah Stone, Artists Against Piracy
David Vladeck, Public Citizen; Former GULC professor


For additional information please contact:
Andy Cornblatt, Assistant Dean of Admissions, (202) 662-9051



THE MOUSE THAT ROARED?

The Facts:  Movester Rules

Technical advances in digital recording have transformed the
video-recorder from a means of recording grainy, out-of-focus home
movies suitable only for showing family members in one's living room
to high-definition, high-quality, perfectly-colored replicas of what
one sees on television or in a movie theater.  Moms and Dads are
delighted to have a life-like, permanent recording of  junior's
first steps.  But the movie industry is petrified.  It was bad
enough when pirates with hand-held, first-generation video cameras
could sneak into first run movies and sell poor quality copies on
the street corner to unsuspecting bargain-hunters.

But these new cameras present a piracy problem that, at least to
hear industry's side of the story, threatens it with economic ruin.
Anyone with a camera worth a few hundred dollars can make a
nearly-exact replica of a first run movie, and with basic computer
equipment, convert that movie into a digital file that can be
transmitted over the Internet at the click of a mouse.  What makes
the downloading and transfer easy is a new software program --
Movester -- that allows virtually anyone with Movester on his or her
computer to download and transfer movie files via the Internet to
any other computer loaded with Movester.  Even more amazing,
Movester permits anyone who has loaded the software on his or her
computer to search for movie titles on virtually any other computer
that also has Movester loaded on it.  The only limitations are that,
because of their size, the files must be segmented into sections of
no more than 20 minutes duration, each file must be separately
labeled, each segment generally takes fifteen to twenty minutes to
download, and most people can view the movie only on their computer
monitor, not their television.  The same technology can also be used
to download and swap television shows, and the networks are just as
terrified as the movie studios.

The developers of Movester -- Jack and Tom Technonerd -- have
announced that they intend to place the software on the Internet,
where it will be available free of charge to anyone who cares to
download it.  When asked whether they are worried that Movester will
encourage people to pirate movies and television shows, the
Technonerds deny that that is their intention.  They say, however,
that "art should be freely available to the people," but they doubt
"that anyone would bother using Movester to download a full,
feature-length movie because of the time and effort" involved.  They
concede, however, that people might download and swap their favorite
movie scenes, like the final tear-jerking scene in Casablanca or the
chase scene in Mad Max (their personal favorite), and they "hope
that Movester will be used for that purpose." When asked whether
Movester could be used to pirate television shows, the Technonerds
responded by inquiring "why the networks would care, since everyone
watches TV in their own homes."

Perhaps because they have a sense of humor, the Technonerds have
scheduled the unveiling of their Internet site for April 1, 2001.
They are considering whether to accept paid advertising on their
site, since they have incurred substantial expenses developing
Movester but do not otherwise stand to make a penny for their
labors.

Needless to say, movie moguls and television executives are up in
arms about Movester and are meeting day and night with their
high-priced lawyers trying to decide what, if anything, they should
do.

The Problem:

Movester's Counsel: Assume that you have been hired by the
Technonerds to advise them.  They have a number of questions: 1) Can
they go to jail for putting Movester on the Internet?  2) Would they
be better off not accepting advertising, and hence can rightly say
that they are not profiting from Movester?  3) If advertising is
okay, should they charge a user fee of some sort, so they can make
some big bucks?  4) If they are sued, are they likely to have to pay
significant damages (since they only have a few dollars between
them, this may not be a serious concern)?

Counsel to Spielberger-Lukas-Panks Movie Studio: Assume that you've
been retained by the Hollywood's most profitable studio three weeks
before Movester's launch date; the studio has several questions: 1)
Is there any way to enjoin Movester's launch?  2) If not, should we
sue right away?  Before Movester is posted?  Or should we wait and
see what happens?  3) What other steps can we take now to avoid the
pirating of our materials?  4) If we win litigation against
Movester, do we have any hope of recovering damages?

Counsel to CNM News Channel: Assume that you've been hired by the
nation's preeminent news  network to advise it on the impact of
Movester. CNM is especially worried about its footage of breaking
news, since CNM often beats the other networks to the punch and airs
footage of the disaster, war, plane crash or other tragedy du jour
hours or even days before its competitors.  CNM isn't worried about
other networks pirating its material.  It is, however, fearful that
its competitive edge will be seriously blunted if its footage is
widely available on the Internet before the network has had an
opportunity to exploit it fully. CNM wants your advice about what,
if anything, it can do to protect itself from Movester.




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