Rules Must Combat Copyright Piracy and Foster Innovation, ISPs and Agencies Say
To properly establish and enforce laws against copyright infringement, there must be a balance between allowing innovation to thrive and ensuring that piracy is deterred, speakers said at a copyright policy symposium sponsored by NTIA and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Policy makers must ensure “that online creative works generate benefits to rights holders in the broader economy and not for those who infringe on those rights,” NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling said. “The Internet must continue to be a platform for innovation and the introduction of new and dynamic services that will continue to drive e-commerce.” Policies must be “flexible enough to adapt to rapid evolution in Internet technologies, applications and content forums."
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The Internet Policy Task Force, comprised of NTIA, the Commerce Department and other agencies, is exploring and reviewing policies relating to cybersecurity and the free flow of information worldwide, Strickling said. An online privacy inquiry also is forthcoming, he said.
American companies are experiencing “IP theft that is costing them money and jobs,” Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said. While file sharing “can sometimes be stopped by ISPs cracking down on users, that approach does not seem to work as well with cyberlockers,” or digital storage lockers, he said. As innovators continue to come up with new and more creative business models to deliver content to users, “we will likely see a parallel increase” in infringement, he said.
In June, federal officials released the Joint Strategic Plan to Combat Intellectual Property Theft. The plan is “ambitious and forward-leaning” in the effort to combat infringement, said Victoria Espinel, federal Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator. The office reviewed more than 1,600 public comments and identified more than 30 action items to improve enforcement, she said. Actions include identifying websites that traffic in infringing content, tracking down foreign-based sites that violate American intellectual property rights and reviewing current laws “to see if there are deficiencies hindering our enforcement actions,” she said.
When considering how to enforce copyright infringement laws, the danger of chilling investment and innovation must be weighed, UC Berkeley Law Professor Peter Menell said. But “some chilling isn’t such a bad thing,” since it’s the result of attention to the process of innovation itself, he said. “Government regulation can play a role, but it can be a very difficult process to find the right balance and for government regulatory institutions to evolve rapidly enough."
"Peer to peer is old school,” Scott Martin of the MPAA said during a panel on emerging trends. The new threat is cyberlockers and streaming, he said. “The top four sites that provide direct access to stolen content receive about 55 billion page views a year.” Another trend is that piracy is no longer a hobby, but a business, he said. Cyberlocker sites have home pages similar to iTunes, are ad-supported and use leech sites, “which are search engines for cyberlockers."
While P2P is still the predominant problem in game piracy, another issue has come from offenders who use more sophisticated ways to circumvent copy protections or modify the gaming consoles to play stolen games, said Ken Doroshow, senior vice president for the Entertainment Software Association. “A critical piece of the piracy puzzle is trafficking and circumvention devices,” like mod chips and game copiers. Martin said that, to step up enforcement, “you're going to need graduated response,” and go after the actual sites, but “you're also going to need site blocking."
There’s a responsibility on the part of intermediaries, some speakers said. “As a partner with content owners, I think we do have a shared responsibility to try to deter infringement, educate our users and promote lawful uses of content,” said Sarah Deutsch, a Verizon vice president. The company supports the Digital Millennium Copyright Act framework, but chooses “to do more than what the DMCA requires,” she said. Any solutions “must be done in the context of voluntary agreements,” which should be balanced, and consider fair process for users and privacy rights, as well as rights of content owners, she said.