HILL LEADER SUGGESTS NEED FOR COPYRIGHT CZAR
Piracy of software and entertainment might never be curtailed “unless someone is in charge to take the credit and take the blame,” House Appropriations Commerce, State, Justice Subcommittee Chmn. Wolf (R-Va.) said Tues. At field hearing in Loudoun County, Va., Wolf told panel of 5 federal officials that “it does seem someone should be responsible domestically and someone internationally” for both enforcement of piracy laws and education on topic. Those officials, representing Depts. of Commerce, State, Justice and the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), seemed less than enthusiastic. PTO Dir. James Rogan, who also is undersecy. of Commerce for intellectual property, told us after hearing that he wasn’t convinced federal govt. needed “an IP czar.” Wolf held hearing in his district at Va. campus of George Washington U. to emphasize importance of federal funding for intellectual property protection. Witnesses repeatedly focused on need for both enforcement and consumer education.
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Copyright enforcement and enactment “has so many different tentacles,” Rogan told us, that “I'm not sure that the creation of a new bureaucracy” will remove need for FBI, Customs and other agencies involved in fight. Rogan is co- chmn. of National Intellectual Property Law Enforcement Coordination Council (NIPLECC), along with Dept. of Justice Asst. Attorney Gen. for Criminal Div. Michael Chertoff, another witness at hearing. NIPLECC was created in 1999 (Rogan as member of Congress then voted for it) but Rogan told Wolf and ranking Democrat Serrano (N.Y.) that group is still “in its birthing stage.” He told us his aim is to have NIPLECC spur many parts of federal govt. that deal with intellectual property to be “far more proactive in the sharing of information.”
Many statistics were cited by Wolf and various witnesses emphasizing importance of intellectual property to economy, with Deputy Asst. USTR Claude Burcky claiming core copyright products such as software, films, music and books accounted for $535.1 billion in U.S. economy, 5.24% of gross domestic product (that figure matched almost exactly one found in a report released Mon. by the International Intellectual Property Alliance). He and State Dept. Asst. Secy. Anthony Wayne described govt. efforts to crack down on piracy abroad, but Wolf was skeptical. Wolf suggested country that tolerates piracy should run risk of losing its foreign aid (not counting humanitarian aid), and when Wayne said he preferred trade sanctions issued by USTR, Wolf replied icily, “the State Department always takes that position.”
Serrano cited his 13-year-old son in saying more people needed to be educated on fact that illegal downloading or purchasing of pirated material is crime. Panelists agreed, with several returning to analogy of CD stolen from Tower Records being equivalent of Napster download. Rogan said federal govt. had a role to play in education campaign but that it should also come from businesses affected. He added that with any campaign “we don’t want to scare the public.” “We have fair use rights in this country,” he said, and “we don’t want to overreact to this and preclude fair use” by suggesting certain activities are illegal when they're not. On other hand, Rogan added, “we don’t want to allow under the guise of fair use” any piracy.
Wolf’s focus was on enforcement, and Burcky said on international front that “our goal is to control piracy through strong laws and effective enforcement.” Paul McNulty, U.S. Attorney for Eastern Dist. of Va. and former counsel with House Judiciary Committee, thanked Wolf for funding that created 13 “highly specialized prosecutorial units dedicated to fighting crime in cyberspace,” known as Computer Hacking & Intellectual Property units or CHIPs. McNulty’s district alone has 6 full-time Asst. U.S. Attorneys devoted to cybercrime, including copyright and trademark violations. Software industry has been involved in piracy enforcement for decades, and Business Software Alliance (BSA) Pres. Robert Holleyman told us before hearing that he was pleased Wolf and his subcommittee were focusing on enforcement. In his testimony Holleyman praised subcommittee for its funding to fight software piracy, including hiring of “a tech-savvy group of investigators.”
Later panels featured association executives familiar with piracy, including Holleyman, MPAA Pres. Jack Valenti and RIAA Pres. Hilary Rosen, as well as AOL Time Warner Vp-IP Policy Shira Perlmutter and Cigital CEO Jeffery Payne. Rosen praised law enforcement efforts on IP but said “we need more CHIPs units. We need IP to be a priority within these units,” which also deal with cybersecurity and pornography, among other activities. Valenti, who has testified several times on this topic on Capitol Hill in last few months, said “it is digital piracy that gives movie producers multiple Maalox moments.” He dismissed notion that studios are reluctant to distribute content online, however, saying “for studios to resist or to turn away from that new Internet delivery system would be fiscal lunacy.” MPAA hasn’t taken formal position on S-2048, bill by Senate Commerce Committee Chmn. Hollings (D-S.C.) that would have FCC mandate digital rights management technology for every digital receiving device if industry didn’t reach agreement in year. MPAA members Disney and News Corp. are vocal in support of bill, but member AOL Time Warner has expressed concerns with govt. involvement.
AOL Time Warner’s Perlmutter avoided commenting on S- 2048 in her opening statement, instead focusing on damage done to company by piracy. She did refer to private-sector solution, noting “we are working diligently in cooperative efforts among the content, computer and consumer electronics industries to develop new and innovative content protection technologies.” CEO-Designate Richard Parsons expressed concerns with S-2048 before Senate Judiciary Committee last month, and Thurs. he will testify on topic again before House Telecom Subcommittee. Veteran of Hollings’ Commerce hearing on topic, News Corp. Pres. Peter Chernin, will testify Thurs. via satellite. Other witnesses include Panasonic/Matsushita Electric CTO Paul Liao, Philips Consumer Electronics CEO Larry Blanford, Vidius CEO Assaf Litai and Digitalconsumer.org co-founder Joe Kraus.