Digital Rights Summit  conference by Digital Consumer.org

2/19/03 held at Intel, Milpitas, CA 8am-12:30pm

 

Notes from the presentations, panels, etc.  These are just ideas I found interesting.  Much more was said….

 

Joe Kraus, DC.org founder:  introduction 

  1. The ability to freely innovate is endangered with protected systems, and SV is under threat with something unable to be seen:  over-applied copyright. 
  2. The First Unintended Consequence of the DMCA and copyright is that we no longer ask the question, is something fair use?  We ask, is it anti-circumvention? 
  3. The Second Unintended Consequence is the use of copyright to stop innovation and consumer fair use.

 

Panel 1:

Greg Ballard, DEO of SONICblue, among other things worked on the Sony Betamax case

  1. Their company cannot afford another lawsuit, so DVD-R technology they developed will not be released in foreseeable future.
  2. The lesson is that suing smaller companies works because they can only sustain the fight for so long, unlike Sony in Betamax.

 

 

Bill Aho, ClearPlay, Inc. CEO – was called a “parasite” by Ebert at Sundance a few weeks ago, face-to-face.  He responded, “Roger, as a critic you’ve probably waited all your life to call someone that.”

 

  1. He is being sued by the MPAA and Director’s guild, as well as 15 directors including Redford, Spielberg.
  2. Their product doesn’t touch or edit the DVD, it just plays through without the sex or violence, or whatever.
  3. Hollywood, it could be argued, makes more money because of their product, because people who wouldn’t buy it can now buy it and watch the movie
  4. Issue of creative control
  5. Their product is not some “airy-fairy” technology
  6. Change the experience for you, but not for anyone else, and you choose to change it
  7. 82% of people surveyed in ZDNet were in favor of Clearplay
  8. Better for families to limit kids exposure

 

Skip London, GC and VP Static Control – sued by Lexmark, laser printer cartridge

  1. Recharges cartridges by “remanufacturing” them
  2. 25% of cartridges sold are recharged
  3. chip to disable this for the Lexmark cartridge
  4. his company reverse engineered the Lexmark chip
  5. interoperability of hardware is the issue
  6. auto parts industry ($250 bil indust) is very supportive of their position

 

David Djavaherian, Irell & Manella, represents Skylink Technologies, which makes the universal garage door openers

  1. chips on openers that are not interoperable, Skylink reverse engineered the Chamberlain opener, and they sued using the DMCA anti-circumvention
  2. preventing of universal interoperable parts to be made
  3. Chamberlain makes the doors, and openers, but a few years ago, they bought another universal door opener company, so Skylink sees this as an anticompetitive measure

 

Hank Barry, VC, and atty Wilson, Sonsini; GC at various tech companies, CEO Napster

  1. copyright good but this current IP situation has tilted everything in the wrong direction
  2. innovation matters more than copyright
  3. funding for innovation considers technologies, markets, financials, and legality of it all
    1. new ventures don’t get funded because of IP problems
    2. I meet with entrepreneurs every day, who are eager to explain how their technology is not controversial
  4. Appeals in patent cases used to happen in general courts and so only a few patents were affirmed, but not it happens in Fed Appeals Ct.
    1. The 9th Cir even affirmed the rights of an expired copyright holder
  5. it’s not Hollywood verses technology, it’s incumbents verses innovators

 

Senator Ron Wyden

  1. the question is, is there exaggeration in these stories
  2. Digital Consumer bill introduced because these aren’t exaggerations
  3. the central question is, is digital media more restricted than analog?  If so, we will stunt innovation
  4. he proposed legislation to reform the DMCA last term because he was flabbergasted by how far fetched the claims are by those who support things like the Hollings Bill
  5. prevailing wisdom is there aren’t 60 votes in the senate to pass his bill, that legislators don’t understand this
  6. this term - introduce legislation to require entertainment and software companies to notify if products have DRM tech
  7. taking a different tack:  consumer right movement building
  8. let the market work and be straight with the consumer
  9. held 5 town hall meeting recently and this subject never came up, people care about jobs, economy, war
  10. but there is an opportunity here to create a consumer rights movement and a digital rights movement

 

 

Congressman Howard Berman

  1. previous speakers were over the top
  2. feel like France at the US last week
  3. re: toner cartridges, DMCA used to engage in anticompetitive behavior was never contemplated
  4. misleading and simplistic to say Lexmark case is not winnable if Static Control is right, just because Static Control is small whereas Sony Betamax case was won because Sony was big and could sustain the fight
  5. distorted to say the DMCA is causing problems for tech industry when war fears, economic downturn, etc. are responsible for loss of innovation/VC funding
  6. have some perspective!  none of this is as important as 45 million without health insurance or the economy
  7. people focus on this to take focus off of the dotcom boom/bust
  8. re Lexmark:  the DMCA doesn’t trump anti-trust law, if that is truly what is happening, Static Control can fight this
  9. DMCA is supposed to work the way people here today are describing
  10. re: Lexmark:  there are actually 3 toner cartridges, a low price offering where the chip renders the cartridge not rechargeable, a med price offering where only Lexmark can refill it, and a high price offering, where anyone can refill the cartridge
  11. don’t screw with the marketplace.

 

Congresswoman Zoë Lofgren

  1. work more with consumer groups to put fair use back
  2. Digital Choice & Freedom Act – can remove the chill on innovation and restore fairness
  3. courts will do a better job defining fair use than Congress
  4. fear Lexmark situation will happen with movies and music products
  5. there will be no investment without certainty in the law

 

Ballard:  Haven’t disclosed this before: The legal expenses defending their current lawsuits cost them $3 million a quarter.  That is the equivalent of 120 people they could employ to further innovate new products. They waste a lot of money on this that could be used on development and innovation.

 

Djavaherian we’re just letting people access their garages – truly

    1. in response, Berman mumbled “that’s illegal”

 

Wyden: as long as this stays in the legal realm, it’s sleep inducing and not on the radar of the public

  1. In Congress, there aren’t 10% who could carry on a marginally coherent conversation about this
    1. Berman mumbled in response “and the other 90% aren’t coherent”
  1. Legal system route makes this issue drag on forever
  2. have to have the discussion in English
  3. disclosure:  customers need to ask, in stores, whether someone is restricting your rights

 

Berry:  People are using copyright to engage in anticompetitive behavior.

 

Berman:  His P2P bill doesn’t allow copyright holders to hack into people systems.  It creates liabilities for the copyright industry for going to far, which are they are uncomfortable with.  It’s just a work in progress.

 

Lofgren:  consumers, in the face of DRM, will defeat technology to get to content. 

  1. copyright owners want to go to a pay per view/listen model
  2. consumers probably don’t want this.

 

Lawyer for Kazaa made statement from the audience:  at the Grammy’s last year, they made a big deal of demo-ing P2P file sharing, and talked about Kazaa, but a week or so later, the NY Times reported that they had actually used AOL IM to do the share.

  1. only court that has ruled on Kazaa, in Denmark, said it was legal
  2. there are legal uses of it, like with the Sony Betamax case

 

Berman:  DMCA is responsible for DVDs

 

Aho:  you have the right to have any experience you want (with your entertainment).

 

 

FEATURED SPEAKER:

Larry Lessig

(Like being at a poetry slam for copyright.)

 

  1. the internet is in transition,
    1. technologies are in transition
    2. disk space is cheap
    3. lead to practice of hoarding content
  2. three things are changing distribution:
    1. broadband
    2. wireless
    3. nodes in every electrical outlet
  3. Experience of streaming will be everywhere, therefore easier to control content with DRM or other mechanisms
  4. Architecture of consumption will change
    1. Ordinary wall to get access will change
    2. We are legislating using yesterday’s technologies as a model.
    3. Not the first time we’ve been confronted with content distribution established industry didn’t like:  the piano roll
  5. Napsterization!  Napsterized! Industries get napsterized.  Fight back with DMCA.
  6. ease of reuse is key: 
    1. compulsory licenses
    2. compulsory use
    3. These two exist in music but no where else
  7. Answer:  “buy them off” – the copyright holders
    1. Interim solution
  8. we will have to innovate to a more
    1. efficient
    2. creative
    3. productive world than exists now, so the interim solution is cool
  9. regulate to give incentives to see copies as good, not a bad thing
  10. require payment only where payment = progress
    1. so 98% of 1932-1948 copyrighted works are not out in the marketplace, and the will not require payment
  11. recognize that this principle of compulsory licensing could produce, relative to the size of the current tiny media market, the same huge growth as the relative change between photography in the 19th century, which was small, to the 20th century which is huge
  12. when he was writing the Future of Ideas, he wanted to use more than 50 words of Courtney Love’s piece in Salon
    1. publisher said no, can’t do, so he asked Salon, and the publisher when told it was a $200 fee, said now you can’t use any unless you pay the fee, and we will take it out of your pay
    2. amazing that a book about fair use and copyright would have to go through this
  13. “there is a tiny sliver of fair use that does function sometimes”
  14. there should be a limit to wrapping up content
  15. Pam is right that there should be a way to circumvent for fair use under the DMCA
  16. We say “ we want balance” and they say “that’s because you’re a communist”

 

Panel 2

 

Van Baker/Gartner

  1. public opinion is in the belief that making copies for your own use as backup, for other formats, for family members, is okay (70-90% of the public supports this depending on the category of copying).
  2. consumers view media as a household purchase
  3. too much emphasis on threat of technologies and not enough on the opportunities

 

Fred von Lohmann, EFF

  1. the Hollings bill was not expected to pass last term as written.  The Entertainment industry wanted it changed, and now they are just heading in the direction of their desired picture of the world, regardless of what restrictions them employ
  2. the Hollings bill as written would impose restriction on every device that can demodulate digital video signal – and every device down the line
  3. they want a federal mandate placing DRM on every chip (including ones not used for entertainment so that they cannot be repurposed) that could do Analog to Digital
  4. the industry is doing this one technology at a time, so the eventually, CEA manufacturers and innovators may have to get industry agreement to make each new device
  5. in 1984, tech companies were held not liable for users actions
    1. this has been under sustained attack in the courts for the past three years
  6. answers may lie in the tensions between creators and media companies
    1. offer a positive message for supporting creators verses media companies to gain artist support
  7. webcasting was the last compulsory license
    1. 50% of the monies collected go to artist community

 

Michael Petricone, CEA

  1. need strong legislative front to combat DRM technologies from taking over
  2. policy issue of year
  3. SV has to get involved; usually they say, let us make our ingenius products and leave us alone, don’t want to get political
  4. we are never going to match Hollywood for lobbyists and campaign contributions, but there are many more consumers out there than lobbyists