http://news.com.com/2008-1082-955417.html?tag=politech Why telecoms back the pirate cause By Declan McCullagh August 27, 2002, 12:00 PM PT ASPEN, Colorado--The copyright wars on Capitol Hill have begun to drift into the political equivalent of trench warfare, with Hollywood and the music industry pitted against hardware makers, electronics manufacturers, and ragtag activists at nonprofit groups. Now consumers have a powerful new ally. Verizon and other telecommunications giants have ordered their phalanx of lobbyists to oppose the entertainment industry's demands for new copyright laws. The company is also fighting the Recording Industry Association of America's request for information about a subscriber. So at the center of the copyright scrum, you'll find Sarah Deutsch. The 41-year-old Deutsch, a vice president and associate general counsel at Verizon, represented her employer during the negotiations over the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) copyright treaties and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). These days, she is marshaling the opposition to proposals in Congress that would permit attacks on peer-to-peer networks, boost technology used for digital rights management, and grant more power to copyright holders. CNET News.com sat down with Deutsch, who was recently in town for a Progress and Freedom Foundation conference, to talk about this looming confrontation over digital copyright law. Q: The Recording Industry Association of America wants you to reveal the name of a subscriber who's an alleged peer-to-peer pirate, but you're saying they're not following the appropriate legal procedure. What's the dispute? A: Verizon looked carefully at the subpoena. This is different from anything they had sent us in the past. (Those) always applied to material residing on our system or network (instead of a peer-to-peer node). It created a very difficult policy issue for us. We understand that RIAA has a problem and needs this information. At the same time, we have an equally legitimate concern that they comply with the proper legal process. We believe this is a very important case of first impression and should not be rushed. [...] ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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