Show Report: PC Forum Focuses on Digital Rights

What should the role of government be in regulating privacy, copy protection, and other digital rights? That was the theme of the opening panel at the annual PC Forum conference this week in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Much of the conversation dealt with the recent hearings held by the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee and with legislation drafted by committee chair Senator Fritz Hollings (D–S.C.) that would require digital rights management and copy protection to be built into electronic devices.

Hillary Rosen of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) said the rhetoric around the Hollings bill has been unfortunate, because the music and technology businesses are working together better than they did a few years ago. She said that people in the in the entertainment industry are not looking for the kind of lock and key solutions that, some say, the Hollings bill is proposing.

Rosen said the music industry wants consumers to use music in any way they'd like. She adds that the industry doesn't get the credit it deserves for already affording consumers the opportunity to use the music the way they want, such as by making compilation CDs from CDs they have bought. She said the industry only complains when there are file-sharing services and other things that let people get the music without first buying the CDs. "No industry has been as generous as we have," she said.

Intel's Les Valdez disagreed, showing a copy-protected Charlie Price CD that can play on your PC, but can't be copied. While Rosen said there was a "peaceful coexistence" between the technology and entertainment business, Valdez said, "We have nothing of the sort."

But the two agreed that entertainment companies need to develop new business models to legally allow people access to music. Valdez said that piracy is a serious concern, but he said controlling piracy "doesn't start with DRM [digital rights management]; it starts with a business model."

Lotus Development and EFF founder Mitch Kapor recalled how in the early and mid-1980's, Lotus and others tried to put copy protection in their software products. The consumer backlash was so strong that this approach was retracted in favor of other methods. He added, "At this point, no one really believes copy protection will be effective in a straightforward way."

Kapor said he didn't think the movie industry really wanted the Hollings legislation to pass. Instead, he said he thinks that the film industry hopes the bill will scare the technology companies into cutting "a deal that will screw consumers." He agreed that a good answer for the music industry would be to offer the diversity of content people want at a price they want to pay. The alternative, he said, is teaching kids not to pay for music.

"Government has been pretty good in its history about thinking about rights," Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA.) said. Where it often fails, she said, is as a regulator. She said this is because most of the people involved in the discussion today have business interests in mind, not the rights of the people. The question shouldn't focus so much on how to regulate, but instead on what copyright laws should look like in the digital age.

Copyright © 2004 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in Ziff Davis Smart Business.