CCIA statement on BPDG final report.

Will Rodger wrodger at pobox.com
Sun Jun 2 14:18:13 EDT 2002


All --

We sent this to the Broadcast Protection Discussion Group Friday. The BPDG, 
of course, is the Hollywood-backed process to, somehow, keep the studios' 
movies from being pirated over the Internet. Some say it's just the ticket 
to avoid things the recently-introduced CBDTPA. A report from the 
discussion group is expected Monday.

Some participants have told members of Rep. Upton's subcommittee that we 
will see a private-sector agreement to protect such content in the 
immediate future.

We doubt the future is so near.

--------------------------------------------

CCIA Statement on the BPDG co-chairs final report

The Computer & Communications Industry Association has been monitoring the 
BPDG process for several months. During that time we have been keenly aware 
of the difficulties of creating a digital rights management system that 
could protect high-definition content while at the same time protecting 
fair use for consumers and future innovators alike.

The co-chairs report purports to do so, but falls far short, in part 
because of the open-ended veto power it has given content owners over 
technologies that could be used to infringe their copyrights. Philips 
Electronics, among others, has already outlined the conflict that has 
resulted from this arrangement.

Such difficulties are a real concern: Intellectual property, after all, is 
a cornerstone of our industry and something without which we and our 
members would have no business at all.

But intellectual property in the United States is and always has been a 
balance between owner and consumer of that property. Part of that balance 
includes building technology and business models that account for the 
interests of other industries and consumer themselves. History tells us 
that juke box owners, piano-roll makers, broadcast music and cable TV 
didn't just bring new media to consumers, but changed the way established 
media did business, often with the help of the legal system.

We see no such evolution in the BPDG. Instead of a process that embraces 
new technology, we see one that attempts to keep it at bay.

Worse, we fear the BPDG approach to intellectual property will ultimately 
bring all of IP into ill repute. Maximalist approaches that treat consumers 
not as partners but as parties from which to extract only profits will 
breed contempt for law as surely as Prohibition ever did, and thereby 
encourage the piracy this effort is supposed to prevent.

The BPDG approach has been marred by repeated and credible claims of 
back-room dealing by a small number of parties who have excluded most 
participants from real decision making. Such closed-door talks raise not 
only issues of fairness and copyright, but competition law as well.

Over the years, CCIA has participated in numerous standards-setting bodies. 
Each has included numerous affected participants, all of whom worked 
towards making systems more interoperable, not less. We call on all BPDG 
participants to include more companies, more consumer advocates, and to 
write strict sunshine rules so that all parties are included all negotiations.

We also call on participants to look to the market first -- and the 
government last – to protect the legitimate interests of all stakeholders.


Will Rodger
Director Public Policy
CCIA 


---------------------------------------------------------------------
The Cryptography Mailing List
Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe cryptography" to majordomo at wasabisystems.com



More information about the cryptography mailing list