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Politech is the oldest Internet resource devoted to politics and technology. Launched in 1994 by Declan McCullagh, the mailing list has chronicled the growing intersection of culture, technology, politics, and law. Since 2000, so has the Politech web site.
The column that drew Coble's reply (Coble co-sponsored the P2P hacking bill with Rep. Berman): http://www.news-record.com/news/columnists/staff/cone0825.htm Previous Politech message: http://www.politechbot.com/p-03795.html --- From: someone@mail.house.gov To: "'declan@well.com'" <declan@well.com> Subject: Coble defends Berman's p2p hacking bill Date: Mon, 26 Aug 2002 17:34:19 -0400 Hi Declan, After all the discussion on Rep. Howard Berman's p2p bill, I thought you and the rest of the Politech denizens would be interested to see what Rep. Howard Coble had to say about it. You can find his thoughts on the Greensboro (NC) News and Record website here: http://www.news-record.com/news/columnists/staff/coble24.htm. I've also pasted it below. If you post this, please don't post my email address. Regards, [deleted] ------------------------ Columns Digital piracy bill is sound 8-24-02 By HOWARD COBLE News & Record The English poet Samuel Butler once said that he did not mind lying, but he hated inaccuracy. After reviewing Ed Cone's column ("Coble wrong about Hollywood hackers") and your editorial ("Coble should retool Internet piracy bill"), I now understand what Butler meant. In fairness to Ed, he did not impugn my character -- in fact, he said some nice things about me -- particularly about my refusal to accept the congressional pension. In turn, I know that Ed is a decent and honest citizen who simply disagrees with his congressman over a matter of public policy. Fine by me, since free speech is the hallmark of representative democracy. But Samuel Butler and I must take issue with his interpretation of a bill (H.R. 5211) authored by a good friend and colleague, Howard Berman. Rep. Berman is the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee that I chair and which has jurisdiction over one of our nation's most precious but least understood assets -- intellectual property, including copyrights. Copyrights, patents and trademarks help to sustain our economy in a major way. The core copyright industries by themselves account for nearly $500 billion of U.S. gross domestic product. Copyright-related employment over the past two decades has produced almost three times as many new jobs as the national average for other sectors. The incentive to create copyrights will quickly dissipate if they are not protected like other forms of property. Currently, the easiest way to steal the latest musical or cinematic offering is through peer-to-peer technology, which essentially allows computer users to swap music and movie files. Millions upon millions of illegal downloads occur each day at the expense of songwriters, authors, graphic artists, photographers and software developers in North Carolina and the rest of our nation. Digital music piracy by itself worldwide costs the affected copyright owners between $3 billion and $5 billion annually, and sadly, most of the illegal activity occurs in the United States. H.R. 5211 is an attempt to control this problem. The legislation is designed only to prevent thieves from illegally distributing copyrighted songs, movies and other digital works over the Internet to millions of computers. The legislation clarifies that copyright owners may utilize new technologies or "self-help" measures to protect their property as it is distributed on peer-to-peer networks. This is almost a dog-bites-man revelation because many intellectual property companies are already using some of these defensive measures now and believe it is legal under current law. Ed Cone thinks otherwise, but after examining his column, I can identify only two criticisms of the bill: The bill will compromise the "privacy rights" of individuals by allowing record companies and others to hack into the personal computers of those who have obtained music files from "popular" file-sharing services. H.R. 5211 does not allow copyright owners to "hack" into the computers of private network users. It only allows a copyright owner to look at files that a peer-to-peer user makes publicly available to millions of other network users. Moreover, copyright owners can only disable the distribution of infringing files. A copyright owner is not permitted to alter the original file itself. Copyright owners will not be legally liable for "disabling, interfering with, diverting, or otherwise impairing files on private computers." The bill explicitly provides network users with legal redress against any copyright owner who acts beyond the scope of what is permitted by the legislation. This new cause of action supplements all other legal remedies currently available to persons who suffer harm. While H.R. 5211 in its current form may not be the perfect answer to a serious problem, it will stimulate discussions on finding effective ways to curb piracy. That is why our subcommittee will conduct a hearing on the issue of piracy on peer-to-peer networks in September. This does not mean that the bill will be voted on prior to adjournment this fall. It does mean that we are interested in exploring ways to combat digital theft of copyrighted works, including music and movies. On that, Ed Cone, the News & Record editorial board and I all agree. Where we part ways in the solution to the problem, but that's why this dialogue is healthy and should continue. U.S. Rep. Howard Coble represents North Carolina's Sixth District. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/ Recent CNET News.com articles: http://news.search.com/search?q=declan CNET Radio 9:40 am ET weekdays: http://cnet.com/broadband/0-7227152.html -------------------------------------------------------------------------