MPAA SAYS NAPSTER-TYPE PROBLEMS COULD SPREAD TO TV, FILMS
Movie and TV industry could soon face Napster-like problem of Internet file sharing, particularly as broadband Internet access becomes more widely available, MPAA Exec. Vp Fritz Attaway told CEA’s Digital Download conference in Washington Tues. He cited study that indicated that 350,000-400,000 full-length movies were being illegally downloaded via Internet every day, with figure expected to grow to one million daily by end of year.
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Impact of video file sharing on industry revenue is “quite small now,” Attaway told us, but he said it could grow rapidly. Noting figures in movie downloading study by Boston-based consulting group Viant, Attaway said: “If anyone thinks this level of file sharing will have no significant impact on owners, then you are a prime candidate for a bridge in Brooklyn.”
Protecting consumer copyright rights in digital era, including fair use doctrine, is “fundamental to exercising our First Amendment rights,” Rep. Boucher (D-Va.) said at conference. It’s time for Congress to “reaffirm fair use and bolster the rights now at risk,” he said. Boucher said it was time for studios and other content owners to submit copyright proposals to Congress: “I hope our content communities will not attempt a unilateral approach to controlling access to content.”
Consumer-oriented change in copyright law would include several factors, Boucher said: (1) Laws preventing circumventing anticopying technology shouldn’t apply to copies made under fair use doctrine. (2) Consumers should have “reasonable expectation” that they could make personal copies of content for time-shifting and other purposes, without degradation of quality. Boucher said analog copy protection laws could be model. (3) Congress should be willing to consider digital watermarking technology. (4) Legislation should allow extended distance learning, first sale exemption and incidental or temporary reproductions, such as in computer buffers. (5) Archiving of legally purchased material on Internet should be allowed. (6) Consumers should be allowed to make archival copies of data and to take advantage of Internet equivalent of in-store exemption.
However, there probably is no need for new copyright legislation now, Attaway said, but it could be needed in the future if the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) proves ineffective in protecting content or if consumers have too much trouble getting access to it. Attaway said broadcast TV certainly needed to be able to protect content because competitors satellite and cable could. He said broadcast had “a horrible competitive disadvantage” because lack of content control made less content available. However, Attaway said DTV transition wasn’t being delayed by lack of content but by “DTV sets that cost $5,000.” As result, he said, there’s not enough audience for DTV content for broadcasters to be able to afford to pay for it.
Copyright law wasn’t created just to provide incentives for creative people to create content, CEA Pres Gary Shapiro said, “it’s also meant to guarantee broad public access” to content. He said there was “a substantial burden of proof” for those who wanted to put restrictions on the use of new technology.
Other comments at conference included: (1) Pam Horowitz, pres. of National Assn. of Recording Merchandisers, said MPAA had started claiming fair use is “a privilege, not a right, and that is disturbing.” (2) Jonathan Potter, exec. dir.-Digital Media Assn. (DMA), said DMA members were “standing in line” for approval of secure digital downloading solutions, but record companies had been too fearful to license any of them: “Since there are no licensed solutions, the unlicensed guy wins.” (3) Attaway defended the anticircumvention provision of the DMCA, saying it was “an intelligent and effective way of preserving copyright without unduly affecting the privacy of consumers.” He acknowledged that the provision “can have some effect on fair use, but fair use isn’t absolute.” (2) RIAA Gen. Counsel Cary Sherman acknowledged that Napster’s ease of use had “raised the bar. It’s much easier to develop a system with no barriers and no compensation… But it means that the legitimate companies have got to create something that is far more user friendly.” (3) Copy protection technology is user friendly because it allows the creation of new consumer products, such as delivery of rental movies via the Internet, said attorney Seth Greenstein, representing the 5C encryption consortium. He said 5C’s deals with the studios, for example, allowed movies to be encrypted in a way that prevented Internet retransmission because the encryption key wouldn’t be retransmitted.