IP: Bray's [ an Iper] Globe column on Hollings hearing

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Mike Godwin <mnemonic () well com>
Date: Thu, 7 Mar 2002 10:47:43 -0500
To: 1634eye () cdt org
Cc: farber () cis upenn edu
Subject: Bray's Globe column on Hollings hearing

Antipiracy bill a high-tech threat, Hollywood-style
By Hiawatha Bray, 03/04/02

The junior senator from South Carolina, no longer content to erect
trade barriers in defense of his state's textile industry, is now
riding to the rescue of music recording companies and Hollywood
studios. But this time, Democrat Fritz Hollings isn't seeking to
protect American industries from foreign competitors. Instead, he
wants to protect them from you.

Legislation to that effect was offered up by Hollings last year, only
to be shoved aside by the outbreak of war. Well, the Hollings bill is
back. And to judge by the hearing held last Thursday in Washington,
the bill, or something like it, might actually have a fighting chance
of success.
                 READ MORE
The Security Systems Standards and Certification Act is Hollings'
effort to rescue entertainment companies from the consequences of
digital technology. You know the problem. With computers and digital
video recorders, it's possible to make perfect copies of films and
CDs. Piracy, already a significant problem for the entertainment
companies, now threatens to cost them billions in profits.

It's possible to fight by adding copy-protection features to the
original video and audio files, but such systems are beatable. It'd
be much harder to defeat hardware, features built into the digital
devices to block illegal copying.

Enter the Hollings bill, which seeks to mandate the inclusion of
exactly this sort of technology into every device capable of running
digital media. Read it and gasp: "It is unlawful to manufacture,
import, offer to the public, provide or otherwise traffic in any
interactive digital device that does not include and utilize
certified security technologies."

Yes, that includes your desktop computer, your TiVo recorder, your
PlayStation 2 and TV set-top box. Everything. Suddenly, the US
government is in the business of designing the next generation of
electronic devices.

It's a prospect that appalls Leslie Vadasz, executive vice president
of Intel Corp. In testimony last week, Vadasz warned a Senate
committee that "any attempt to inject a regulatory process into the
design of our products will irreparably damage the high-tech
industry."

No kidding. In Hollings' vision of the future, each new Intel
processor, and all the supporting chips needed to make it work, must
henceforth be engineered to protect the interests of Britney Spears
and the Walt Disney Co. In an industry where product cycles last only
a few months, the burden of having to design in antipiracy features
will slow the process, while adding millions to development costs.

You might think that a law that could devastate America's most
important industry might give a few senators pause. But those who
attended the hearing report that Vadasz's arguments were met with
indifference.

"Every senator on that dais today agreed with us," boasted Jack
Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association of America. To
be fair, Valenti said that he's not wedded to the specifics of the
Hollings bill. Indeed, he claimed not to have read it, even as he
laid out his own interpretation of its details.

Like a horror-movie mogul, Valenti appreciates the value of a short,
sharp shock.

"That legislation served one useful purpose," he said. "It gave an
incentive to the consumer electronics people and the information
technology people to sit down and talk. ... I think that legislation
did a great deal to concentrate the minds wonderfully."

One wishes that a few of those minds would concentrate on existing
law governing the public's right to make "fair use" copies of
copyrighted material. At the hearing, Disney CEO Michael Eisner
singled out the Apple Computer Inc. marketing slogan "Rip, Mix,
Burn." Eisner sees it as evidence that the PC's ability to copy,
remix and re-record music is an invitation to thieves. But as Intel's
Vadasz noted in an open letter written after the hearing, "the
ability to rip, mix and burn in a protected manner is not piracy, it
is simply fair use of content as permitted by law."

Any fair-minded person must admit that the music and movie industries
have a legitimate concern. Millions of people already steal their
products with digital assistance, and the problem is getting worse.
But the proposed alternative would turn our personal computers, and
all our other personal technologies, into digital busybodies that
probably would forbid even legal copying. And the requirement to
build such features into every digital device guarantees that new
gadgets will be slower in coming, and cost more when they arrive.

This may not trouble Senator Hollings, whose efforts in defense of
South Carolina cloth mills have long added a few cents to the price
of T-shirts. But what about the other senators on the committee?
What's their excuse?
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hiawatha Bray is a technology reporter for The Boston Globe. His
Upgrade column appears each Thursday. Hiawatha can be reached by
e-mail at bray () globe com.


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