CableLabs Pres. Richard Green fired back Mon. at Home Recording R...
CableLabs Pres. Richard Green fired back Mon. at Home Recording Rights Coalition in letters to Sens. Leahy (D-Vt.) and Hatch (R-Utah), chmn. and ranking Republican on Senate Judiciary Committee. HRRC and CEA, both led by Gary Shapiro, contend that…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
CableLabs’ POD-Host Interface License Agreement (PHILA) would stop consumers from “fair use” home copying and was being thrust upon companies in secret negotiations (CD April 8 p9). Green called Shapiro’s characterization “highly inflammable and inaccurate.” PHILA was never intended to stop legitimate “fair use” of material but provides “a tool box” to allow cable programmers and content producers to exercise copy control, said Green, adding that it fully accommodates personal video recorders. Rep. Boucher (D-Va.) recently complained to FCC that CableLabs was keeping secret its PHILA agreement (CD March 25 p3). But Green told Leahy and Hatch that “the PHILA process was never ‘held secret.'” Since Boucher’s complaints were made public, CableLabs has posted PHILA on Internet. Green said there was “nothing secret or suspicious” about PHILA, but that CableLabs was trying to protect companies’ highly sensitive, proprietary information during negotiations. He pledged that agreement posted on Internet would be periodically updated. “Under the circumstances, we believe that no government intervention is appropriate,” Green wrote.