--- From: "Clark, Drew" <dclarkat_private> To: "Declan McCullagh (E-mail)" <declanat_private> Subject: For Politechbot Date: Fri, 6 Sep 2002 10:31:46 -0400 Declan: Subscribers to Politech may appreciate reading our article recounting the history and import of the battle between Hollywood and Silicon Valley. yours, Drew Clark Senior Writer, National Journal's Technology Daily National Journal's Technology Daily home: http://nationaljournal.com/pubs/techdaily Information about National Journal's Technology Daily: http://www.technologydaily.com tel 202-261-0357 fax 202-261-0361 cell 202-329-9517 e-mail dclarkat_private or drewat_private 1501 M Street NW, Suite 300 Washington, DC 20005 Full story available to all at the following link: <http://nationaljournal.com/about/njweekly/stories/2002/0906nj1.htm> COPYRIGHT ISSUES Digital Divide By Drew Clark and Bara Vaida, National Journal's Technology Daily © National Journal Group Inc. Friday, Sept. 6, 2002 With a cue from Walt Disney Chief Executive Michael Eisner, Senate Commerce panel staffers dimmed the lights for a packed February 28 hearing in the Russell Senate Office Building. A full house of lawmakers and lobbyists settled back to watch an ABC Nightline segment on a 15-year-old named Benjamin who used his personal computer to go online and download the movie Men of Honor and an episode of Seinfeld, minus the ads. "You name any movie, I can find it," Benjamin declared. At the witness table moments later, Eisner repeated that boast, hoping to hammer home Hollywood's message: Congress must act fast to protect the motion picture industry from Internet pirates like Benjamin. And the Disney chief also pointed a finger at big names in the technology industry -- Intel, Microsoft, Apple Computer, Dell Computer, and Hewlett-Packard -- accusing the tech giants of condoning a growing wave of digital thievery. [...] Then Silicon Valley had its turn. Representing this side was Les Vadasz, executive vice president at Intel, who urged the senators to keep a level head about the entertainment industry's complaints. The technology industry, Vadasz said, is 20 times the size of Hollywood, fast moving, and highly innovative. "Please don't tamper with the dynamics of the technology industry," he warned. "It would do irreparable damage." Vadasz differed with a draft legislative proposal by Sen. Ernest F. Hollings, D-S.C., chairman of the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee; the Hollings draft, which was circulating around Capitol Hill, would give tech firms just one year to develop anti-copying "policeware." If they didn't act, the tech companies could ultimately be subject to criminal penalties. No sooner had Vadasz finished than Hollings launched a verbal counterattack. The chairman reminded Vadasz that semiconductor manufacturers had benefited from government assistance in the 1980s. "We 'tampered,' and we saved you," Hollings declared. "Where do you get all this 'irreparable damage' nonsense?" Vadasz meekly replied, "That is a totally different issue." [...] Struggling For A Solution Now almost forgotten, the first major battle of the digital age was born of a 1996 agreement between the movie industry, through its trade group, the MPAA, and consumer electronics manufacturers. Sony and Matsushita Electric Industrial were among the companies that had developed a digital videotape recorder they thought would replace conventional analog recorders. But the manufacturers could not afford to alienate Hollywood, so they negotiated specifications that would keep the recorders from making more than one copy of a movie or TV program. The agreement was shopped around Washington in the form of proposed federal legislation. Because the proposal would have applied to computers too, the manufacturers and their studio allies eventually sought the blessing of the Information Technology Industry Council, a Washington-based association for the computer industry. Foreshadowing the present battle, the ITI expressed outrage over what it said the agreement would do to its member companies. The proposal "was madness, because it wouldn't have done what the movie and consumer electronics guys wanted," says Rhett Dawson, ITI's president. The proposal would have required every computer to scan every digital file that it processed -- whether a movie, a spreadsheet, or a personal e-mail -- and look for a code on whether copying was permitted. Dawson says it would have slowed computer performance by as much as 50 percent, with no apparent benefit to the user. [...] Days after the September 11 terrorist attacks, MPAA's Valenti, Disney's Padden, and Fox's Setos flew on Disney's corporate jet from Burbank to San Jose, Calif. At a Silicon Valley hotel, they hooked up with representatives from Vivendi and AOL Time Warner and went as a group to the TechNet meeting. Valenti urged the tech folks to do more to stop online piracy. The MPAA chief added that he wasn't backing the Hollings plan -- just yet. But according to TechNet President Rick White, who had co-founded the Congressional Internet Caucus when he was a House member from Seattle, Valenti warned that the Hollings approach "might be what had to happen." No, the tech executives said, a process to resolve differences between the two industries was already in place: the technical working group formed in 1996. But Valenti wanted a CEO-level dialogue, not another meeting of the engineers. White promised to get back to Valenti and then rebuffed the request. Later, the tech executives changed their tune. On the eve of the Commerce Committee hearing in February, Barrett and others promised the studios a CEO-level dialogue, but a date is still being negotiated. [....] ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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\clan CNET Radio 9:40 am ET weekdays: http://cnet.com/broadband/0-7227152.html -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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