SENSENBRENNER PROMISES LEGISLATIVE APPROACH TO DIGITAL RIGHTS

Mon. was deadline for all parties in respective industries to submit comments on DRM to House Judiciary Committee, where Chmn. Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) and ranking Democrat Conyers (Mich.) are conducting investigation. “Obviously technology is advancing faster than copyright law,” Sensenbrenner told NAB breakfast here Mon. He said he and his colleagues would review all of comments and “try to see where consensus could be made,” with goal of “a consensus bill later this year.” Sensenbrenner -- who repeated his vigorous defense of role of Judiciary Committee in this debate due to its oversight of intellectual property -- said bill was likely to propose amending Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which is less than 4 years old.

“I think I'm the first full House Judiciary chairman to have an open mind” on content protection, Sensenbrenner said, suggesting predecessors such as Rep. Hyde (R-Ill.) had catered to content providers “in Hollywood and Nashville.” He did have some strong words for content providers, particularly recording studios, saying they “ought to take a page out of what the movie industry did 20 years ago with VCRs,” when they turned rival technology into profit source. “The movie industry ended up getting several kicks of the cat” in form of additional revenue streams from each content production, he said, and when he said broadcasters understood that better than record companies he was greeted with applause.

Hollings doesn’t feel that copyright laws need to be changed, however, according to his counsel Al Mottur. Mottur told audience that Hollings’ bill would avoid changing copyright law and instead would seek creation of technological solution that would be consistent with existing law: “Nothing in the legislation changes copyright law.” Some of this, as Mottur and other Hill aides admitted, stems from jurisdictional issues in Congress, and Hollings conceded in his hearing last month that he felt Commerce Committee was better suited to work with private sector on solution that would lead to profits for all affected industries. Mottur acknowledged Mon., however, that no DRM legislation “will pass Congress without the significant investment of the Judiciary Committee.” Senate Commerce Committee Chmn. Leahy (D-Vt.) said repeatedly at his hearing last month that no legislation resembling S-2048 would pass Congress this year.

House Commerce Committee Chmn. Tauzin (R-La.) spent last week meeting with studios and IT companies in Cal. on DRM issues. Spokesman Ken Johnson said Tauzin was pleased that when he met with Sony -- company that is both CE manufacturer and studio -- that all parts of company were present for meeting. Johnson said Tauzin also was pleased that while 2 years ago Sony was asking Congress to help block content, now “they want to make money” by opening up new distribution channels. Mottur praised discussions that Tauzin and House Telecom Subcommittee Chmn. Upton (R-Mich.) have had on DRM with industry officials, but said their talks had addressed mostly rollout of DTV: “We're trying to do something on the copyright piece.”

One issue all members seemed to agree upon was that it was most desirable for private industry to reach DRM solutions on DTV, analog content converted to digital and put online, and digital content obtained illegally from studios and other sources. They also agree it was regrettable that consensus solutions remained elusive, although many pointed to proposed broadcast flag that should protect DTV content from being replicated online. Sensenbrenner’s attitude toward content providers doesn’t reflect that of all members of his committee, however. For example, House Judiciary Courts, Internet and Intellectual Property ranking Democrat Berman (D-Cal.) wrote Cisco Systems CEO and TechNet leader John Chambers recently urging him to work more aggressively to meet needs of content providers. (Berman represents Cal. district abutting Burbank that contains multiple content providers).