DISAGREEMENTS REMAIN ON DTV AND STREAMING DRM ISSUES
In weeks since Senate Commerce Committee Chmn. Hollings (D-S.C.) held hearing on digital rights management (DRM) and then introduced S-2048 -- which would have FCC mandate DRM solution if private sector failed to reach one within year -- 3 additional congressional hearings have dealt with DRM and numerous position papers, talking points and agendas have been issued by representatives of content, IT and CE industries. While Senate Judiciary Committee Chmn. Leahy (D- Vt.) has vowed S-2048 won’t pass Congress this year, most observers agree that Hollings has increased focus on DRM. Some participants in interindustry negotiations also say other industries are showing more interest in reaching resolution, and solution appears near on DTV broadcast flag (CD April 26 p2). Disagreements still remain, however, and rhetorical war is continuing on what, exactly, each segment of debate aims to win and how possible it is that technology alone can achieve those aims.
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Content industry had been complaining to Hollings for months that IT and CE industries weren’t being cooperative on DRM negotiations. However, News Corp. Pres. Peter Chernin told House Telecom Subcommittee Thurs. that talks had been progressing since original hearing held by Hollings. IT industry still disputes notion that it ever was uncooperative. Business Software Alliance (BSA), Computer Systems Policy Project (CSPP), Information Technology Assn. of America (ITAA) and Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) distributed joint statement at House hearing Thurs. dismissing as “fiction” notion that “the IT industry is being uncooperative and unresponsive” or has been “dragging its feet.” “The IT industry has been working diligently for years to solve content problems with great success,” groups said, citing DTV flag breakthrough and progress on watermark for analog content repurposed for digital distribution, so- called analog hole. Referring to constant meetings over 6 years with Copy Protection Technical Working Group (CPTWG), 4 IT groups noted that MPAA Pres. Jack Valenti told Hollings’ hearing that “the consumer electronics and information technology industries have been working cooperatively with us.”
Valenti has been present at all 4 recent DRM-related hearings and has testified at 2. He wasn’t witness Thurs. but issued statement nonetheless. MPAA, he said, had 3 goals: (1) Broadcast flag for DTV, which would need “narrow congressional or agency action” to certify private industry consensus technology. (2) Watermark for analog hole, which again would require “congressional assistance.” (3) End to “the avalanche of movie theft on so-called ‘file-sharing’ Web sites, such as Morpheus, Gnutella, etc. (the more accurate name would be ‘file-stealing’ sites).” (Morpheus and Gnutella actually are not Web sites, but rather are free software that enables peer-to-peer file sharing between individuals’ PCs without central server archiving materials in way Napster did.) Valenti said “continuous negotiations must take place to develop technical solutions, which may require legislative enforcement.”
MPAA endorsed S-2048 in March 21 statement but also said “there is no single solution” to digital piracy. CEA Pres. Gary Shapiro, in his role as chmn. of Home Recording Rights Coalition, seized on that distinction by Valenti in his own statement issued at Thurs. hearing. “Despite its official endorsement” of S-2048, Shapiro wrote, “MPAA has in fact set out a different, more specific and layered, 3-part agenda.” Shapiro said HRRC was supportive of MPAA’s first issue, broadcast flag, assuming that “no limitations on consumer home recording rights” were included. (On that score, Disney lobbyist Preston Padden took issue Fri. with contention of House Internet Caucus Co-Chmn. Boucher [D-Va.] at Thurs. hearing that S-2048 would limit personal copying, telling reporters: “The Hollings bill, in explicit statutory language, enshrines and EXPANDS consumer home taping latitude under the Sony Betamax case.")
On MPAA’s 2nd point, on analog hole, Shapiro said his group had worked for years on that problem and simply wished that any approach agreed upon followed “reasonable ‘encoding rules'” as specified in Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Biggest problem for HRRC was MPAA’s 3rd point, on peer-to- peer. “HRRC is unaware of any technical presentation defining or supporting this agenda” -- notion of imposing on consumer electronics devices some sort of DRM solution. “Without knowing the precise objective, the means of implementation or the necessary scope of regulation or legislation, HRRC cannot support this agenda.”