[FYI] (Fwd) FC: Rep. Howard Coble defends peer-to-peer hacking bill

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

------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent:      	Tue, 27 Aug 2002 02:21:08 -0400
To:             	politech@politechbot.com
From:           	Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
Subject:        	FC: Rep. Howard Coble defends peer-to-peer hacking bill
Copies to:      	efcone@mindspring.com
Send reply to:  	declan@well.com

The column that drew Coble's reply (Coble co-sponsored the P2P hacking
bill with Rep. Berman):
http://www.news-record.com/news/columnists/staff/cone0825.htm

Previous Politech message:
http://www.politechbot.com/p-03795.html

---

From: someone@mail.house.gov
To: "'declan@well.com'" <declan@well.com>
Subject: Coble defends Berman's p2p hacking bill
Date: Mon, 26 Aug 2002 17:34:19 -0400

Hi Declan,

After all the discussion on Rep. Howard Berman's p2p bill, I thought
you and the rest of the Politech denizens would be interested to see
what Rep. Howard Coble had to say about it.  You can find his thoughts
on the Greensboro (NC) News and Record website here: 
http://www.news-record.com/news/columnists/staff/coble24.htm.  I've
also pasted it below.

If you post this, please don't post my email address.

Regards,
[deleted]

------------------------

Columns
Digital piracy bill is sound
8-24-02
By HOWARD COBLE
News & Record
The English poet Samuel Butler once said that he did not mind lying,
but he hated inaccuracy. After reviewing Ed Cone's column ("Coble
wrong about Hollywood hackers") and your editorial ("Coble should
retool Internet piracy bill"), I now understand what Butler meant.

In fairness to Ed, he did not impugn my character -- in fact, he said
some nice things about me -- particularly about my refusal to accept
the congressional pension. In turn, I know that Ed is a decent and
honest citizen who simply disagrees with his congressman over a matter
of public policy. Fine by me, since free speech is the hallmark of
representative democracy.

But Samuel Butler and I must take issue with his interpretation of a
bill (H.R. 5211) authored by a good friend and colleague, Howard
Berman. Rep. Berman is the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee that I
chair and which has jurisdiction over one of our nation's most
precious but least understood assets -- intellectual property,
including copyrights.

Copyrights, patents and trademarks help to sustain our economy in a
major way. The core copyright industries by themselves account for
nearly $500 billion of U.S. gross domestic product. Copyright-related
employment over the past two decades has produced almost three times
as many new jobs as the national average for other sectors. The
incentive to create copyrights will quickly dissipate if they are not
protected like other forms of property.

Currently, the easiest way to steal the latest musical or cinematic
offering is through peer-to-peer technology, which essentially allows
computer users to swap music and movie files. Millions upon millions
of illegal downloads occur each day at the expense of songwriters,
authors, graphic artists, photographers and software developers in
North Carolina and the rest of our nation. Digital music piracy by
itself worldwide costs the affected copyright owners between $3
billion and $5 billion annually, and sadly, most of the illegal
activity occurs in the United States.

H.R. 5211 is an attempt to control this problem. The legislation is
designed only to prevent thieves from illegally distributing
copyrighted songs, movies and other digital works over the Internet to
millions of computers. The legislation clarifies that copyright owners
may utilize new technologies or "self-help" measures to protect their
property as it is distributed on peer-to-peer networks. This is almost
a dog-bites-man revelation because many intellectual property
companies are already using some of these defensive measures now and
believe it is legal under current law.

Ed Cone thinks otherwise, but after examining his column, I can
identify only two criticisms of the bill: The bill will compromise the
"privacy rights" of individuals by allowing record companies and
others to hack into the personal computers of those who have obtained
music files from "popular" file-sharing services. H.R. 5211 does not
allow copyright owners to "hack" into the computers of private network
users. It only allows a copyright owner to look at files that a
peer-to-peer user makes publicly available to millions of other
network users. Moreover, copyright owners can only disable the
distribution of infringing files. A copyright owner is not permitted
to alter the original file itself.

Copyright owners will not be legally liable for "disabling,
interfering with, diverting, or otherwise impairing files on private
computers." The bill explicitly provides network users with legal
redress against any copyright owner who acts beyond the scope of what
is permitted by the legislation. This new cause of action supplements
all other legal remedies currently available to persons who suffer
harm.

While H.R. 5211 in its current form may not be the perfect answer to a
serious problem, it will stimulate discussions on finding effective
ways to curb piracy. That is why our subcommittee will conduct a
hearing on the issue of piracy on peer-to-peer networks in September.
This does not mean that the bill will be voted on prior to adjournment
this fall. It does mean that we are interested in exploring ways to
combat digital theft of copyrighted works, including music and movies.

On that, Ed Cone, the News & Record editorial board and I all agree.
Where we part ways in the solution to the problem, but that's why this
dialogue is healthy and should continue.

U.S. Rep. Howard Coble represents North Carolina's Sixth District. 




----------------------------------------------------------------------
--- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing
list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this
notice. To subscribe to Politech:
http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is
archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Declan McCullagh's photographs
are at http://www.mccullagh.org/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
--- Like Politech? Make a donation here:
http://www.politechbot.com/donate/ Recent CNET News.com articles:
http://news.search.com/search?q=declan CNET Radio 9:40 am ET weekdays:
http://cnet.com/broadband/0-7227152.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------
---

------- End of forwarded message -------


-- 
To unsubscribe, e-mail: debate-unsubscribe@lists.fitug.de
For additional commands, e-mail: debate-help@lists.fitug.de