Hollings Sponsors Copyright Bill. All consumer devices to contain copy protection. Bye bye fair use.

MP3 Newswire ^ | September 10, 2001 | Richard Menta

[John Jorsett]

It has only been about a month. That's when a bipartisan bill introduced in the House of Representatives by Chris Cannon, R-Utah, and Rick Boucher D-Va was introduced to free up the air surrounding the online music industry. The Music Online Competition Act (MOCA) would update copyright law, making it easier for online services to conduct business without being sued and strengthen fair use definitions to clarify and extend the rights of consumers when they buy a CD or movie.

You knew that such a bill would not go uncontested by the entertainment industry.

Sponsored by powerful chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, Fritz Hollings D-S.C., a new bill seeks to do the opposite and severely tighten the control the record and film industries have on the product they distribute to consumers. To achieve this, the bill would force all consumer electronic devices including e-books, DVDs, computers and cell phones to embed copy-protection technology.

The Security Systems Standards and Certification Act (SSSCA) makes it a crime to create or sell any kind of computer equipment or electronic device that "does not include and utilize certified security technologies". The bill also limits consumers' fair-use rights and proposes new penalties for simply distributing copyrighted material without the new security protocols.

The penalty if convicted would be : "… not more than $500,000 or imprisoned for not more than 5 years, or both, for the first offense; and (2) shall be fined not more than $1,000,000 or imprisoned for not more than 10 years, or both, for any subsequent offense."

The bill does limit who could be prosecuted should it become law; "Only someone who violates the law willfully and for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain can be convicted". That seems to let Napster clone users off the hook as long as no money is exchanged, but definitely hits those who sell MP3-laden CDs on eBay. Of course hardware enabled devices would not legally be able to play any of this content in the first place, which is where the bill gets its effectiveness.

Webnoize has already declared the bill draconian and doubts it would pass in its current form.Once passed, it would also take time to develop and adopt a security protocol, a chore that has so far eluded the fading Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI). Still, a revise of the controversial 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is all but inevitable. Remember too that the bill doesn't even have to pass to be successful as one of its main main goals is to stonewall the liberal Cannon/Boucher MOCA bill.

What stands out most of all is that, as-is, Hollings bill would kill the MP3 device market like similar laws killed Digital Audio Tape (DAT) back in the 80's. MP3 is seen as the successor to the aging cassette technology and the push is on by the electronics giants to capture a piece of the burgeoning market. RCA alone will release 20 MP3 devices by Christmas of this year. By this time next year, most CD and DVD players will be given the ability to read MP3 files to stay competitive in the market.

With billions of dollars in device sales on the line, the big electronic companies are not going to let such a bill pass without some of their input. Cassettes and CDs players are a stagnant market with some homes already owning several of the devices. New products based on the MP3 format revitalize sales for these companies as everyone is again a first time buyer. After witnessing what digital music did for CD burner sales, you know the electronic conglomerates see digital music as their next big windfall.

Bottom line, a big fight is coming on the steps of Capital Hill and as Webnoise succinctly put it:

The big winners here? Attorneys representing companies on both sides of the fence. Possible losers? Anybody who wants to exercise fair-use rights for copying, scholarship or criticism.

[John Jorsett]

The copyright issue is a sensitive one here at FR. Think how much Hollings and his fellow Democrats would love to be able to penalize FR for 'distributing' copyrighted material 'without the new security protocols'.

[Twodees]

As a citizen of South Carolina, I have to apologize for myself and my fellow Sandlappers. We were remiss in not hanging Fritz while he was still a minor ambulance chaser.

[WyldKard]

This is very sad. This bill must ABSOLUTELY NOT pass. However, it will. The people who want it passed are far, far too powerful. The time for civil disobediance on this issue is nigh.

[Demosthenes]

Yeah, god knows if someone creates a song, then you have a god-given right to own a copy of it for free.

[ThinkDifferent]

I fear you are right. The article mentions that hardware manufacturers might oppose it, but I wouldn't count on that. They may figure that they can sell you an MP3 player this year, and then an SDMI-equipped user-hostile model the next year, which you'll be "forced" to buy because your old model is now illegal. This must be stopped, but considering how little resistance the DMCA has encountered, I'm not optimistic.

[ThinkDifferent]

Unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material is illegal and always has been. That is not the point of this law at all. Content providers want to control your use of material that you have legally obtained. It's analogous to criminalizing the manufacture of any car that can go faster than 70 mph.

[milestogo]

If i own a CD with the song on it, i have a right to convert it to a mp3 file and load it on my mp3 player.

[B Knotts]

Another thread on this topic

[swampfox98]

This signals the end of the internet as we know it. Lying, thieving pig politicians - I hope they rot in their own greed.

[Jay W]

Hollings? Consumer devices?

But, of course!

"Thar's too much consumin' goin on!"

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But seriously, what can you expect from a demoncrat like Hollings? Frankly, there's too much legislatin' going on....

[John Locke]

If i own a CD with the song on it, i have a right to convert it to a mp3 file and load it on my mp3 player.

Maybe, maybe not. Technically, you have created a "derivative work", which is a copyright violation. If you try to sell the MP3 file or make it publicly available, that is certainly a theft of intellectual property, and actionable. If you use the file yourself, simply as a substitute for the CD, that is probably not actionable.

[WyldKard]

Maybe, maybe not. Technically, you have created a "derivative work", which is a copyright violation. If you try to sell the MP3 file or make it publicly available, that is certainly a theft of intellectual property, and actionable. If you use the file yourself, simply as a substitute for the CD, that is probably not actionable.

And people have been doing this sort of thing since day one. Just yesterday. I popped my new Bjork CD into my DVD player, and made a copy onto Minidisc. It's no different from making a cassette tape recording of a CD, or back in the ancient days of stone and straw, LP's :)

Every time that some new recording technology comes out, we have to hear the recording industry bitch and moan about how awful it is, and how its going to Just Ruin Them All. They tried to kill cassette tapes (because people could tape songs off the radio, thus Ruining The Entire Industry). They managed to successfully kill off DAT for the most part due to their inane restrictions. They keep trying to push for a surcharge on blank CD's. When the VCR came out, the MPAA almost blew a gasket. Yet both the music and movie industries continue their phenomenal growth. Earth to Chicken Little....

The point of the matter is that DESPITE new copying technologies, and new things like Napster, media sales continue to go UP, not down. Pirates continue to steal NEGATIVE amounts of money from the Record Industries. :) If anything needs to be investigated or legislated, it's the coercieve, Mafia-like tactics the record companies engage in, when they rape their talent, and continue to push Congress on the sly to force artists to give up more and more of their rights to the record companies.

The long and short of it is that the Internet and new media technologies give artists an effective way of circumventing the middle man, and said Middle Men are pissing themselves with fright. They will do what it takes to slow their inevitable death, instead of trying to adapt to market demands. I wouldn't mind paying a buck a song on Napster, for instance (Assuming I'd get a high quality copy of the song, and a good connection guerenteed....) Hell, I've ended up BUYING CD's because I liked the songs I got from Napster. And I'm not alone...

The RIAA and the MPAA are the villians here. IP deserves protection, but not at the expense of our own rights. Ayn Rand was right..Governments that desire more power do it by making new laws that turn more and more of their citizens into criminals.

[WyldKard]

I fear you are right. The article mentions that hardware manufacturers might oppose it, but I wouldn't count on that. They may figure that they can sell you an MP3 player this year, and then an SDMI-equipped user-hostile model the next year, which you'll be "forced" to buy because your old model is now illegal. This must be stopped, but considering how little resistance the DMCA has encountered, I'm not optimistic.

Well, SDMI is a joke. Their security standards keep getting huge holes punched into them. When people want to talk about it, RIAA uses DMCA to shut the people up. I've read articles about a lot of SDMI board members pulling out over the last year. Three years now, and nothing to show for it. Pure vaporware...

Hardware manufacturers would rather get as many people as they can to buy their equipment, and anything that restricts their user base is bad for business. Recently, there was a big meeting about installing serial copy management on all new hard drives, and practically all the hard drive manufacturers said "No way, no how." The last thing Maxtor or Western Digital need is to find out that the new security ROMs or firmware in the drive has a bug that keeps the OS from booting properly...

In fact, it was probably this failure to convince the Hard drive industry to play ball that prompted RIAA and the MPAA to make Congress FORCE the free-market to abide by it's wishes. This is PURE economic socialism at it's worst folks! If you can't make the market do what you want, get the Government to force people to do what you want them to...