[FYI] (Fwd) "Brave New Battleground" Over Digital Copyright: US New

["Axel H Horns" <horns@ipjur.com>]

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From:           	Mike Riddle <mriddle@MONARCH.PAPILLION.NE.US>
Subject:        	"Brave New Battleground" Over Digital Copyright:  US News & World
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http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/010910/opinion/10atlarge.htm

Reply to: letters@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@usnews.com. We look forward to hearing from
you.

-The Editors






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