February 28, 2002


        Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee
        508 Dirksen Senate Office Building
        Washington, DC  20010

        Dear Chairman Hollings and members of the Committee:

	I write to thank you for the opportunity to testify today
	before the committee on the important issues of content
	protection for digital media. After my appearance today, I
	received a number of questions from members of the press about
	a few key points and I wanted to convey to the members of the
	committee my answers to those questions to be included in the
	record of the hearing, with the Committee's permission. I
	believe this additional information will help the committee
	understand more fully the IT perspective.

	I reiterate that the CPTWG cross-industry working group has
	developed effective technology that is available today that
	can and will protect new digital, secured content from being
	pirated on the Internet. If it is protected "at the source" it
	will always be protected from the illegal activities of
	Internet pirates. Sony Pictures and AOL-Time/Warner have in
	fact licensed this technology.

	However, there was a point of confusion injected before the
	Committee by Mr. Eisner and Mr. Chernin, specifically: the
	securing of unprotected content from Internet piracy. It is
	important for the Committee to understand that content, once
	captured in "unprotected" form, can never be put back in the
	"bottle" and protected against copying on the Internet. This
	is because this unprotected media looks no different to
	digital devices than a home movie that you would send to a
	relative or friend. There is no watermark, chip device, or
	screening system that will ever effectively put an end to this
	problem. Only the passage of time - as new content is released
	with the required protection technologies - will eventually
	solve Internet piracy. Mr. Perry, who co-chairs the relevant
	working group within the CPTWG, also made this clear.

	Another major point of misunderstanding is our differing
	perspectives on the role of the PC in the hands of the
	consumer. Mr. Eisner's characterization of the phrase "rip,
	mix, burn" as emblematic of our industry's perspective on
	piracy is utterly false. What the content community fails to
	recognize is that these utilities - the ability to copy
	content, remix and manage it and port it to other storage
	media for personal use in a protected fashion - are features
	that consumers have come to expect. The ability to rip, mix
	and burn in a protected manner is not piracy, it is simply
	fair use of content as permitted by law.

	As I said, we will continue to work with all interested
	parties on these important issues, as they are vitally
	important to our industries and the nation's economy. Thank
	you again for the opportunity to present our position on these
	important matters.

		
        Sincerely, 

        Leslie L. Vadasz
        Executive Vice President
        Intel Corporation