WASHINGTON -- If Hollywood and the music industry get their way, new software and hardware will sport embedded copy protection technology.
A bill introduced by Senate Commerce Chairman Fritz Hollings would prohibit the sale or distribution of nearly any technology -- unless it features copy-protection standards to be set by the federal government.
Here's a primer on the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act (S.2048):
Creating: Anyone selling -- or creating and distributing -- "digital media devices" may not do so unless they include government-approved security standards. Digital media devices are defined as any hardware or software that can reproduce or display copyrighted works. [Section 5(a)(1)]
Importing: It would be unlawful to import software or hardware without government-approved security standards. It's not clear whether this section bans an individual downloading a copy of a program from a non-U.S. website. [Section 5(a)(1)]
Protecting: Network-connected computer systems may not delete markers indicating a file is copy-protected. Such systems must preserve the markers intact. This section applies to peer-to-peer networks, FTP sites, websites, routers, Internet providers, library terminals and more. [Section 4]
Removing: Knowingly removing copy-protection markers from digital content is prohibited. [Section 6(a)(1)]
Sending: It would be unlawful to knowingly distribute or send someone any digital content that has been purged of its this-is-copy-protected marker. [Section 6(a)(2)]
Violations of any of those four sections will be punished by civil penalties ranging from $200 to $25,000 per violation, and, in some cases, federal felony charges.
Fair use: Another section says that if anyone wants to use the copy-protection standard, to be drafted by the Federal Communications Commission, they have to use the whole thing. That's designed to preserve at least minimal "fair use" rights. [Section 6(b)]
But it's a section with blunt teeth. Nearly all the other parts of the bill promise criminal penalties: This merely promises civil damages of between $200 and $2,500.
MP3 players: One part of the bill overrides a landmark lawsuit that said the Rio MP3 player did not violate copyright law.
In 1999, a federal appeals court ruled that Diamond Multimedia Systems could sell the Rio -- a decision that ushered in the MP3 craze. This bill rewrites current copyright law to require copy-protection in any device that "retrieves or accesses copyrighted works in digital form."
"By including that, they want to get around the Rio court case," says Ethan Ackerman, a senior research fellow at the University of Washington School of Law. "This is statutorily overruling that court case. This way they can sue the player manufacturers."
