Congresses Attempt to Protect Content in a Digital Age
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I ran across this U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation hearing from way back in 2002. Chaired by Ernest “Fritz” Hollings of South Carolina, the committee attempted to address the growing concern regarding piracy of digital programming – both over the air as well as served up online. Fortunately, cooler heads in the form of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) prevailed and the overbearing restrictions proposed by Sen. Hollings in his opening statement never took hold.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2002
Washington, DC.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. ERNEST F. HOLLINGS,
U.S. SENATOR FROM SOUTH CAROLINA
The Committee will please come to order. Today, we examine the copyright protection problems that have been stalling consumer adoption of broadband and digital television, and what Government should do to solve it. We have been here before, in 1962, under the All-Channel Receiver Act, Congress mandated that all television receivers include the capability to tune all channels, UHF and VHF, allocated to the television broadcast service.
More recently, in 1998 Congress required that all analog VCR’s recognize the standard copy control technology known as macrovision. In the former case, the Federal Government and the FCC took the lead. In the latter case, industry first agreed upon the macrovision standard, and Congress validated the agreement in legislation, so whether Congress or industry led the way, the results have benefited consumers and the industry both by providing Americans with wider access to programming and content. Ronald Reagan used to say, here we go again. Industries are at odds as to how to solve the critical content protection problems.
We have got the tools to break the log-jam. First, rural and underserved areas aside, there is not a broadband availability problem, there is a demand problem. 80 percent can get broadband, but only 10 to 12 percent take it. Most Americans do not want to pay $50 a month for faster access to e-mail, but if more high-quality content were available online, consumers would come. Today, there is very little high-quality content available on the Internet. Why? Because content owners are fearful that premium content will be stolen, and their investment in creative works wasted. The same is true for digital television, where piracy deters programmers from putting high definition digital content over the airways.
America’s creative artists deserve protection. Our copyright industries are among our greatest economic and creative assets. The Framers recognized that innovation and creativity was instrumental to our country’s economic health when they empowered Congress in the Constitution to protect copyrighted products. Now, however, in an era when products are delivered digitally, copyright laws mean less and less. Absent strong technological protections layered on top of the copyright laws, it is virtually impossible to enforce the law as it exists.
I might note at this particular point that the copyright laws are there. That is a matter of jurisdiction for our
Judiciary Committee, but while they know the law, they do not know the business, and this thing continues on into log-jam. Every week a major magazine or newspaper reports on the thousands of illegal pirated works that are available for copying and redistribution online. Academy Award-winning motion pictures, platinum records, Emmy Award-winning television shows all for free are illegal. I think last night on the Grammy Awards they had three college kids in a contest to see how many movies–I think it was 8,000 movies that they could download, or 6,000 songs I think, that they downloaded in 3 days.
Piracy is growing exponentially on college campuses and among tech-savvy consumers. Over 10 million people use file-sharing sites on the Internet to download movies and TV shows with no penalty. Such lawlessness contributes to the studios’ and record labels’ reluctance to place their digital content on the Internet or over the airwaves.
When Congress sits idly by in the face of these activities, we sanction the Internet as a haven for thievery. Luckily, a solution is at hand. Leaders in the consumer electronics information technology and content industries are America’s best and brightest. They can solve this problem. The consumer electronics and high tech industries claim they are ready to do just that.
Only yesterday, America’s top high tech executive sent me a letter to that effect. I want to believe them, but why have they not done it? This has been going on for years, and today the Committee wants results. Industry negotiations have been going on for years with little to show for it. Both sides share some blame in this area, as I see it. Some companies may have divided loyalties. Existing propriety digital rights management technologies licensed to content companies would be eliminated by the adoption of a single standard. Other tech companies profit from the sale of consumer electronics equipment that enables piracy in the first place, so when I listen to high tech’s clarion call to the Government, please stay away from our business, I am reminded of the police chief in Casablanca who said, I’m shocked. I’m shocked that gambling’s going on here.
Senator Stevens and I are planning legislation that would place a deadline on affected industries to come together to solve these problems in private sector talks. We want industry to solve its own problem, and if they do, we will empower Government enforcement so that all consumer devices comply. If they do not, the Government’s technologists and engineers, in consultation with the private sector, will step in.
In addition, I would emphasize that we will work to preserve legitimate expectations of consumers and researchers. We will make sure that you can take the program off and make copies for your personal use on your VCR or for research. If they engage in lawful behavior at the home or at the university, we will permit them to do the same in the future.
This will not be the first time Congress imposed technological requirements to benefit consumers, and it will not be the last. Other standard-setting issues loom ahead, such as the need to ensure compatibility of devices used by different cable operators, but that is a topic for another hearing. Today, we examine copyright protection issues in a digital age, and we have distinguished panels with us.
Let me yield first to our distinguished former chairman, John McCain.