2 US lawmakers tout digital consumer rights

By Andy Sullivan

WASHINGTON: With an eye on the next session of Congress, two Democratic lawmakers have waded into the ongoing battle between Hollywood and Silicon Valley with bills that seek to protect consumer rights in the post-Napster era. Neither bill stands a chance of becoming law before Congress adjourns for the November elections, but both will likely serve as early makers in the digital-media debate that will continue on Capitol Hill next year.

While they take different approaches, both Virginia Rep. Rick Boucher and California Rep. Zoe Lofgren aim to clarify "fair use" rights, which allow consumers to make limited copies of books, movies and music for personal or academic use. Long a central part of copyright law, fair-use rights allow consumers to record TV shows on their VCRs, make cassette tapes for their cars, back up software used on their computers, and quote novels or poems.

But the boundaries of fair use have blurred in the digital era, as computers, CD burners and peer-to-peer software like the now-defunct Napster have allowed consumers to make unlimited, perfect copies of copyrighted works. Media companies and consumer-electronics firms have struggled to find a balance that would allow consumers to use MP3 players and other new gadgets while at the same time protecting copyrighted material from widespread piracy.

In a statement on Wednesday, Lofgren said consumers needed a voice in the debate. "Right now, it is the entertainment industry versus the technology industry, and the consumers are watching from the sidelines," Lofgren said.

At a press conference to unveil his bill on Thursday, Boucher said he did not want fair-use rights to erode as the two industries negotiate technological fixes. "Library patrons may well find that instead of material being available on the library shelves for free as it is today, new material delivered to the library will only be available on a pay-per-use basis," Boucher said.

Would change 1998 law

Congress has weighed in on the digital-copyright issues before, passing a law in 1998 that, among other things, made it a crime to bypass copy-protecting technologies. The law has figured prominently in several disputes, at one point leading to the arrest of a Russian engineer who developed a method to get around copy-protection features on Adobe Systems Inc.'s digital-book reader.

Boucher's bill would modify the 1998 law to allow consumers to defeat copy-protection measures as long as they did not then pirate the material. For example, a blind person would be allowed to modify Adobe's digital-book reader so it could read text aloud, he said.

The bill would also provide protections for scientific research and establish a standard warning label for copy-protected CDs that may not work in computer drives. Lofgren's bill takes a more straightforward approach, specifying that fair-use rights currently protected in the analog realm should apply to the digital world as well.

Just as a consumer has a right to give away or sell a book, the bill would allow the consumer to sell a digital book so long as he does not keep a copy. Technology companies such as Intel Corp and Verizon Communications lined up to support Boucher's bill, which has also drawn the backing of traditional fair-use advocates like the American Library Association.

"This is the first time in 20 years where consumers are going on the offense, rather than playing defense," said Gary Shapiro, president of the Consumer Electronics Association, which backs both bills. The movie industry's top lobbyist objected to both bills, saying they would prevent movie studios from protecting their works against piracy.

"If this bill were to be enacted, content owners would be left with two unhappy choices: protect their valuable works by not making them available in digital formats such as DVD, or lose all control over unauthorized reproduction and distribution," Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association of America, said about Boucher's bill.

The Business Software Alliance, a software-industry trade group, voiced a similar objection. The Recording Industry Association of America declined to comment on either bill as it had not yet seen the specific language, but a spokesman for the trade group said mandatory labels for copy-protected CDs were not necessary, as the industry was developing guidelines of its own.

© Reuters