Industry groups unite against piracy
Music, computer industries bury hatchet on downloads
By Sital Patel, Medill News Service
Last Update: 7:11 PM ET Jan. 14, 2003
WASHINGTON (CBS.MW) -- Leading companies in the music and computer industries agreed Tuesday to cooperate to stop digital piracy without government intervention.
"The theft of digital content is wrong but a government technology mandate is a threat to digital consumer content," said Ken Kay, executive director of the Computer Systems Policy Project, representing U.S. leading technology companies.
The computer companies joined with major software and music companies in making Tuesday's announcement. Read more.
Music, software and movie companies say downloading and copying of their content on computers and over the Internet is costing them billions of dollars each year. The computer companies say they shouldn't be forced by the government to add devices to their products to prevent illegal copying.
The agreement by the industries to cooperate slows efforts by some lawmakers to require antitheft devices to be included in consumer electronics.
The record industry said album sales fell nearly 7 percent, accounting for about $400 million in lost revenue last year. The movie industry says the cost of worldwide piracy is $3 billion a year. The industry is reluctant to offer its movies on the Internet until a solution to piracy is found.
The Motion Picture Association of America, the group representing the movie industry, is notably absent from this agreement. In the past, the movie industry has favored Congress passing legislation requiring built-in locks to prevent duplication of DVDs.
The agreement also excluded the major consumer electronics companies.
Last year, Sen. Ernest Hollings, D-S.C., chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, warned the industries to come together or else he would push through a bill that would have required government-approved copy restriction technology being added to digital media devices such as hand-held music players. Read more.
Hollings is no longer chairman of the committee, but remains its ranking member.
The industries agreed Tuesday to work further on voluntary technical measures that would limit unauthorized copying while giving consumers their fair use rights to the products they've purchased.
The agreement is an attempt at "marrying the marketplace with the public policy rhetoric," said Hillary Rosen, the CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America, which represents the major music companies.
The alliance wants tougher enforcement of existing copyright laws and wants the government to fund programs to educate the public about digital piracy.
The lobbyists representing the industries said legislation to mandate antitheft devices would not be effective and would be easy to circumvent.
The agreement doesn't go far enough to protect consumers, said Rep. Rick Boucher, R-Va., who has sponsored a bill to protect fair use rights.
In a statement Monday, Boucher criticized the alliance for leaving out key players in the movie industry, the Consumers Electronic Association, and other technology companies such as Sun Microsystems (SUNW: news, chart, profile), Gateway and Verizon (VZ: news, chart, profile).
Rosen did say that although the three groups would meet again to discuss solutions to issues both industries are facing, she did not know when or where they would face the other groups.
The agreement was negotiated between the Recording Industry Association of America, the Business Software Alliance and the Computer Systems Policy Project. The RIAA represents major music companies; the software alliance members include Microsoft (MSFT: news, chart, profile), Apple Computer (AAPL: news, chart, profile), and Adobe Systems; the Computer Systems Policy Project represents IBM (IBM: news, chart, profile), Intel (INTC: news, chart, profile), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ: news, chart, profile), Dell Computer (DELL: news, chart, profile) and many more.
Sital Patel is a reporter for Medill News Service based in Washington.
