[free-sklyarov] "Brave New Battleground" Over Digital Copyright: US News & World Report

[James S. Huggins (Free Sklyarov)]

Here is an open door . . .

James S. Huggins





http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/010910/opinion/10atlarge.htm

Reply to: letters at usnews.com

World At Large 9/10/01

Brave new battleground

Fred von Lohmann loves his music. In the car, at home, and at work,
the San Francisco lawyer cycles through a collection of some 800 CDs.
Since he can't carry his 200-pound music library around town, he
makes copies: one for his car, one for his computer, one for his MP3
player, an archival backup-you get the idea. All of this is perfectly
legal under current copyright law. So it's no surprise that von Lohmann
fiercely opposes a new experiment by the recording industry, an
experiment he thinks will restrict the rights of millions of consumers.

Armed with the power of new digital technology, the recording
industry is now planning to encrypt its music CDs to prevent
duplication. The industry isn't worried about the Fred von Lohmanns
of the world. (Well, that's not entirely true-von Lohmann has locked
horns with the recording industry as an attorney for the Electronic
Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit group that promotes civil liberties
on the Internet.  But more on that later.) Record companies say their
real concern is piracy-the widespread swapping of copyrighted works
over the Internet without any royalties going to the artists who created
them. Of course, the recording industry isn't alone in this concern.
Free digital copies of American Pie 2, Planet of the Apes, and just about
any other box office hit, along with bestselling novels, are ripe for
picking off the Web.

To fight back, copyright owners have begun using technological tools
to lock up CDs, DVDs, E-books, cable and satellite broadcasts-nearly
every digital medium-encrypting them in ways that could soon determine
when and how we watch and listen.

All this has led to a collision between industries that fear losing billions
and consumers who fear losing "fair use" of the copyrighted works they
buy. Who's right? How do we strike a workable balance?

Tipping the scales. Balance is key. Fundamentally, copyright law
represents a weighing of the free flow of ideas to benefit the public
against the rights of artists, musicians, and writers to profit from their
work. Too little protection, and entrepreneurs lose the incentive to
create. Too much, and public speech is stifled.

What brought this issue to the fore now are the dizzying changes in
technology we've seen in the past few years, starting with the Internet,
which opened the door to people who wanted to record and trade vast
amounts of material. But the same technologies might soon restrict
entertainment in ways never imagined. In an effort to block mass
swapping of copyrighted works, industries are spending millions on
"digital rights management." But so far, this anti-pirating technology
can't tell whether I'm copying a DVD to sell it illegally or whether I'm a
film-studies professor preparing clips for class.

No matter. Already, movie studios are backing a new equipment standard that
will make digital recording nearly impossible. Industries are also
redefining what it means to "own" a copy of a work. For instance, just
compare paper books with electronic books. Once you've purchased a paper
book, you can read it anywhere you want, keep it as long as you want, lend
it to a friend, or sell it for cash. None of this need be true with an E-
book. Publishers decide whether you can read it only on your computer at
home, or whether you can transfer it to a portable E-book reader. They
decide whether you can print any pages. They decide whether you can make a
backup copy. Right now, the E-book market is small, so the sting of such
changes is minor. But Hollywood is planning on delivering movies via the
Internet in a similar way.

All these copyright technologies are protected by the 1998 Digital
Millennium Copyright Act. The law prohibits cracking these technologies
or helping others crack them by providing decoding software. Industry
says the law gives artists necessary protection from piracy. Critics say
the law leaves consumers in a bind: Although they continue to have the
rights to make limited copies of music and movies, they can be
prosecuted for using any of the tools necessary to do so. Von Lohmann
and the Electronic Frontier Foundation are currently challenging the
legality of the statute in federal court.

Clearly, the technological landscape is changing quickly, and these are
just the opening stages of a crucial debate over policies that will
determine how we experience media in the 21st century. Is industry
trying to choke progress or simply preserve intellectual property? Are
Internet activists paving the path to the future or just trying to get
something for nothing? We invite you to share your thoughts on the
subject as part of our ongoing World At Large series. We can be found
at letters at usnews.com. We look forward to hearing from you.

-The Editors

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