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[dvd-discuss] Protecting Creative Works in a Digital Age
- To: usercomments(at)judiciary.senate.gov
- Subject: [dvd-discuss] Protecting Creative Works in a Digital Age
- From: "Arnold G. Reinhold" <reinhold(at)world.std.com>
- Date: Mon, 18 Mar 2002 15:09:30 -0500
- Reply-to: dvd-discuss(at)cyber.law.harvard.edu
- Sender: owner-dvd-discuss(at)cyber.law.harvard.edu
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<div><font color="#000000">March 18, 2002</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">The United States Senate </font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Committee on the Judiciary</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Washington D.C.</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Via E-mail to
</font>usercomments@judiciary.senate.gov<font color="#000000"><br>
</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Re: </font>Protecting Creative Works in a
Digital Age: What is at stake for Content Creators, Purveyors and
Users?</div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">I oppose proposals, like the SSSCA, that
require Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology in all
digital devices because they radically shift the balance of power
between information producers and the public. Orwellian is the
best word to describe such laws. They are part of a broad
effort on the part of the media industry to gain complete control
over information, with prior efforts directed at extending copyright
duration, fighting copying technology, killing digital audio tape and
even attempting to block the introduction of the VCR. </font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">The creation of the personal computer and
the Internet is one of the great achievements of American technology,
and one that offers profound hope for our future. The media companies
are trying to commandeer this technology to gain a new means of
distribution at little or no cost to themselves. Why should they be
permitted to cripple this engine of progress just so they can enhance
their profits? No one is forcing media companies to release their
precious content in digital form that can be played on personal
computers. It is a choice they continue to make in the face of
the obvious risks and they should live with the
consequences.</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">But the dangers of this latest proposal go
far beyond the economic. Here are some scenarios where SSSCA would
undermine basic public rights to access and use
information:</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Balkanization of Human Culture</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">One sign of what a DRM world would be like
is already apparent with DVDs. The Motion Picture Industry
Association has arbitrarily divided the world into six
"zones." Movies recorded on DVDs for one zone are not
usable on DVD players in the other zones. If you buy a DVD on a trip
to Europe or Mexico, you can't play it when you get home.
Movies that lack a large market, because they are not in
English or are too local in content, are unlikely to be released in a
North American version (Zone 1), so U.S. citizens can never watch
them. Is this what Congress intended when it passed the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act? SSSCA will only make things
worse.</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">The New Iron Curtain</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">In the future, repressive governments may
insist that media players imported into their territory have their
DRM technology adapted so that it can block any unapproved works.
Only media that has a digital signature from a government censor will
be playable. As new digital devices come to dominate information
commerce, these governments will be able to totally control what
movies, songs, political tracts, TV programs and news stories are
available to their citizens. Any U.S. citizen who tried to create
material that would bypass the censor would be subject to criminal
prosecution under SSSCA. </font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">If you think I'm exaggerating, consider
this: China already has its own DVD zone -- number 6. Suppose I were
to re-recored for zone 6 a copy of "Kundun," the Walt
Disney feature film about the Dalai Lama's escape from
Chinese-occupied Tibet. Doing this would allow a friend in China
could play it on his DVD player. Right now I might be subject to a
$2000 fine for an act of circumvention under the DMCA. Under SSSCA, I
would be committing a felony. </font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Revisionism by Law</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">In the past when an organization issued a
public statement, it became part of the public record. In the future
organizations can issue statements, advertisements, stock
solicitations, etc. in the form of protected, time limited documents
using DRM technology. If the statement proves to be embarrassing,
inconvenient or otherwise problematical, they can simply erase it
from their records or even alter it to eliminate the problem text or
to add exculpatory material. Anyone who attempted to save a readable
copy of the original that would catch their fraud would be subject to
criminal prosecution under SSSCA.</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br>
No More Free Public Libraries</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Ben Franklin himself invented the public
library and publishers have been seething ever since. The free
public library has been a cornerstone our democracy, allowing people
of all economic classes to access our common culture. The Digital
Rights Movement will effectively kill Franklin's concept by
establishing the pay per view business model as the prime mode of
publishing. Public libraries will become retail kiosks for collecting
access fees. Already advanced information services like Lexis charge
rates well beyond what the poor can afford. That is the DRM vision of
the future.</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Harvard University was named after John
Harvard because he donated his library to the fledgling college. In
the future scholarly material will be delivered to each professor in
a DRM format keyed to the professor's player or smart card. When he
or she dies, no one will be able to access his or her lifetime of
accumulated material per SSSCA.</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br>
Secret Fundraising Letters</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">An issue in the last New York Senate
campaign was whether one candidate had espoused positions in his
fundraising letters that differ from those he stated in public. The
public certainly has an interest in knowing about such behavior. In
the future, politicians will deliver fund raising material using time
limited DRM technology. An opposing candidate that attempts to
introduce copies into the public debate would criminally violate
SSSCA.</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br>
The End of the Paper Trail</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Already companies are programming internal
e-mail systems to erase messages from archives after a few months.
Soon companies will distribute internal memos in a time limited DRM
format that can only be played on company computers. The software
that plays these memos will not permit them to be saved in a neutral
format. This will effectively eliminate the paper trail that is
used to prosecute white-collar crime and end whistle blowing as we
know it. Enron's auditors would not have had to shred documents if
they had access to the type of technology SSSCA would
mandate.</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">I fear we will discover other, more
insidious, unintended consequences of this dangerous proposal. It
lays the groundwork for total control over electronic
expression. "1984 was not a novel, it's just another
high tech product plan with an overoptimistic ship
date."</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br>
<br>
</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Respectfully submitted,<br>
<br>
Arnold G. Reinhold</font></div>
<div>14 Fresh Pond Place</div>
<div>Cambridge, MA 02138</div>
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