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[FYI] (Fwd) FC: Tech CEOs oppose SSSCA, tell Hollywood to try "marke"market solutions"




------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent:      	Wed, 27 Feb 2002 16:49:26 -0500
From:           	Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
To:             	politech@politechbot.com
Subject:        	FC: Tech CEOs oppose SSSCA, tell Hollywood to try "market solutions"
Send reply to:  	declan@well.com

Politech archive on Sen. Hollings' SSSCA:
http://www.politechbot.com/cgi-bin/politech.cgi?name=sssca

Witness list for Thursday's hearing:
http://www.politechbot.com/docs/hollings.sssca.hearing.022602.html

Draft text of the SSSCA:
http://www.politechbot.com/docs/hollings.090701.html

---

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,50716,00.html

   High-Tech: U.S. Out of Hollywood
   By Declan McCullagh (declan@wired.com)

   11:49 a.m. Feb. 27, 2002 PST
   WASHINGTON -- America's largest and most powerful tech firms have
   agreed on one point: Keep Congress far away from digital content
   standards.

   In a 600-word letter sent to movie studios on Wednesday afternoon,
   the chief executives of IBM, Microsoft, Motorola, Intel and five
   other corporations said they were eager to work with Hollywood to
   find "technically feasible, cost effective solutions" for
   protecting entertainment delivered in digital form.

   The letter ostensibly went to the chief executives of Walt Disney,
   AOL Time Warner, MGM, Sony Pictures and so on -- but the real
   audience was Senate Commerce chairman Fritz Hollings (D-South
   Carolina), who is convening a hearing Thursday morning on whether
   the U.S. government should require that copy protection be embedded
   in nearly all PCs and consumer electronic devices.

   Hollings has drafted, but has not introduced, legislation called
   the Security Systems Standards and Certification Act (SSSCA). A
   draft of the SSSCA obtained by Wired News prohibits creating,
   selling or distributing "any interactive digital device that does
   not include and utilize certified security technologies."

   [...]

---

http://www.politechbot.com/docs/sssca.opponents.letter.022702.html

February 27, 2002

Michael Eisner                                  Sumner Redstone
Chairman & Chief Executive Officer              Chairman & Chief
Executive Offi cer The Walt Disney Company                        
Viacom 500 South Buena Vista Street                    1515 Broadway
Burbank, CA 91521                               New York, NY 10036

Jean-Marie Messier                              Gerald M. Levin
Chairman & Chief Executive Officer              Chief Executive
Officer Vivendi Universal                               AOL Time
Warner 375 Park Avenue                                 75 Rockefeller
Plaza New York, NY 10152-0192                         New York, NY
10019

Alex Yemenidjian                                John Calley
Chairman & Chief Executive Officer              Chairman & Chief
Executive Offi cer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc.                      
Sony Pictures Entertainment 2500 Broadway Street                      
     10202 W. Washington Boulevard Santa Monica, CA 90404             
            Culver City, CA 90232

K. Rupert Murdoch
Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
News Corporation
1211 Avenue of Americas, 3rd Floor
New York, NY 10036


Dear Sirs:

We write to you to urge inter-industry cooperation to ensure that
digital content can be distributed to consumers efficiently through a
variety of means.  Each of our companies is in the business of
developing the hardware and software that will make e-commerce thrive.
Constant access to information, through comprehensive broadband
deployment and availability, we expect will in time be widely
available.  It is clear that your companies' entertainment products
will form an important part of a thriving on-line economy.  Digital
television is also an important development, and we expect it will
soon become widely available.

Business models are only beginning to be developed for supplying
consumers' on-demand entertainment.  We recognize the critical
importance of effective anti-piracy tools in this changing market
environment, and that the absence of such tools may affect the
development of new product offerings.  To address this concern, our
companies have worked diligently, voluntarily and cooperatively with
producers of entertainment content, as well as consumer electronics
companies, to develop systems that will foster the legitimate
distribution of digital content.  The Copy Protection Technology
Working Group (CPTWG) and the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) have
been highly productive fora for developing consensus among the many
disparate businesses that must work together to build a robust
infrastructure for the secure dissemination of digital content. We
have found these voluntary multi-industry standards setting efforts to
be optimally effective in reaching workable market solutions.

For instance, these voluntary groups have successfully formed
consensus on key technologies, making it possible to distribute movies
in protected environments such as in DVD format, and developing
effective technologies for protecting content distributed over cable
and satellite.  An inter-industry group is now working diligently
within CPTWG to develop a consensus on a means to limit the unlawful
redistribution of digital content delivered through unprotected
over-the-air broadcast channels. This task force (the Broadcast
Protection Discussion Group, or BPDG) is working to identify the
workable technical and business solutions.

The information technology industry is committed to doing its part in
the shared multi-industry development and deployment of effective
solutions for the protection of digital content through a variety of
distribution channels and an array of settings. We understand this
will be an ongoing undertaking, requiring responses as distribution
methods and technology evolve and progress.  Our goal is to work with
you in a consensus-based and cooperative fashion. We urge you to work
with us to find technically feasible, cost effective solutions.

We look forward to a fruitful collaboration to achieve our common goal
of providing consumers with new and exciting digital entertainment
products.

Sincerely, 

Michael D. Capellas                     
Chairman and CEO                        
Compaq Computer Corporation     

Michael S. Dell
Chairman of the Board and CEO
Dell

Louis V. Gerstner, Jr.
Chairman of the Board and CEO
IBM Corporation

Craig Barrett
Chief Executive Officer
Intel Corporation

Steve Bennett
President and CEO
Intuit Inc.

Steven A. Ballmer
CEO
Microsoft Corporation

Christopher B. Galvin
Chairman of the Board and CEO
Motorola

John S. Chen
Chairman, CEO and President
Sybase, Inc.

Lawrence A. Weinbach
Chairman of the Board and CEO
Unisys Corporation


Cc:  Jack Valenti




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