more politics of copyright

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51966-2005Jan5.html
Tech Firms Aim to Change Copyright Act
ISP's Liability for File Sharers at Issue

By Jonathan Krim
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 6, 2005; Page E01

Several of the world's largest high-tech corporations plan to urge Congress
today to force Internet service providers to crack down more aggressively on
their users who swap copyrighted software, music or video files online.

The move is a significant escalation in the campaign by the software and
entertainment industries to squelch widespread file sharing by millions of
users through services such as Kazaa, Grokster and Morpheus. If successful,
it could reshape a long legal tradition of shielding phone, cable and other
communications companies from liability for the actions of their customers.

Although members of the Business Software Alliance, including Microsoft
Corp., International Business Machines Corp., Intel Corp. and Adobe Systems
Inc., have not suffered losses from illegal file sharing as great as the
entertainment industry's, they believe the problem will only worsen as
technology improves and more people get high-speed Internet access.

Generally, the only way for companies to learn the names of suspected file
traders is to file a lawsuit, a step technology companies would prefer to
avoid, said Bruce Chizen, chief executive of Adobe, which makes the popular
Photoshop editing program. The Recording Industry Association of America has
so far sued 7,700 file swappers in hopes of scaring away others, a strategy
that has angered many music fans.

Instead, Chizen and BSA officials want Congress to secure the cooperation of
Internet service providers by amending the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright
Act, which was designed to address potential copyright violations in the
electronic age. They say changes are necessary because the original statute
was enacted before services took root allowing computer users to swap songs,
software and other digital material on a massive scale.

The campaign to modify the law is part of a broader effort by the BSA to
address a variety of copyright and patent issues. In a report to be released
today, the group outlines its concerns but offers no specifics on how the
1998 law should be changed. But in an interview, Chizen and BSA Executive
Director Robert Holleyman said Internet service providers should no longer
enjoy blanket immunity from liability for piracy by users.

Without cooperation from Internet providers such as America Online, Verizon,
Comcast Corp. and others, Chizen said, it can be difficult to track down the
names of file swappers, who often can be identified only by their numeric
computer addresses. Under current law, communications companies have to
provide the names of the account holders who match those addresses only if
they receive a subpoena as part of a lawsuit targeting a user.

"If they [online providers] don't have to, they don't want to do the work,"
Chizen said.

Holleyman and Chizen said they want to work with Internet providers to
reshape the law, but that did not calm ISP officials and privacy advocates.

"The best policy is not to have the service provider become Big Brother,"
said Sarah B. Deutsch, associate general counsel of Verizon, which has
successfully challenged RIAA efforts to compel the company to turn over
names of suspected file sharers even when no lawsuits have been filed.

Deutsch said Internet providers willingly cooperate with content owners
within the bounds of the law. Now, she said, "BSA wants its own shortcut, at
the expense of consumer privacy and the ISPs."

Mike Godwin, legal and policy director for Public Knowledge, a digital
rights advocacy group, called the BSA interest in amending the digital
copyright act a "terribly bad idea."

He said the country has long kept communications services as neutral
conduits, free from obligations to monitor how people use them.

"We already don't ask the phone companies to go after people who engage in
infringing performances of songs over the telephone," Godwin said.

America Online spokesman Nicholas J. Graham agreed, saying that maintaining
the principle of "safe harbor" from liability for communications providers
is vital.

Chizen acknowledged that striking the right balance would be a complex task,
but said, "We can't ignore it any longer." The BSA also proposed changes to
U.S. patent law. The technology industry is facing spiraling litigation
costs over patent rights, which the BSA said threatens to stifle innovation.

One problem is that as patents have proliferated, a new kind of business has
emerged in which companies seek to enforce patents solely to make money, not
to use the technology. Even when the patents are not likely to stand up in
court, companies often settle with the patent owners rather than go through
costly legal battles.

The BSA wants administrative procedures to allow third parties to be able to
challenge patents after they are granted, and to limit damage awards for
willful patent infringement.

Other critics of the system argue that too many patents are granted,
especially for software, and that the system is weighted in favor of large
companies and against small inventors.