The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) has issued a position paper on consumer recording rights, which it expects to be a "key issue in 2007." The CEA's position, in brief: "We urge Congress to refrain from limiting fair use and encourage market-based solutions to home recording and digital rights management issues."
The one-page paper is admirably succinct and free of cant. The CEA cautions that "home recording and piracy should not be confused," since home recording is not the same as re-broadcast or mass commercial distribution. The CEA also calls for warning labels on "copy-protected" media and a change in the Digital Millenium Copyrght Act's (DMCA) language, which makes circumventing copy protection a crime, even if no infringement occurs.
Why is the CEA so exercised over the erosion of fair use and sweeping claims of piracy? Essentially because "lawful innovators" (ie, consumer electronics manufacturers) "increasingly find themselves the target of lawsuits brought by the content community." This is a problem created by sweeping generalizations, such as the language of the DMCA, and the confusion generated by the content industry's deliberate use of the word "piracy" for personal copying. (See today's article about Robert Santangelo.)
The CEA calls for policy makers and members to "join the discussion" by attending its CEA Washington Forum on March 26–27. The Washington Forum includes panel discussions on electronics recycling compliance, the transition to digital television, divvying up the 700MHz spectrum, and, of course, digital technology, which the conference calls "making the dream of anytime, anywhere access to content come true."
The "dream" seminar is to be moderated by the CEA's senior vice-president of government affairs and features XM Radio's Jeff Blattner, senior vice president of public policy and special counsel. (XM, it should be noted, was sued by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) over its Inno receiver/MP3 player.) The seminar's description: "Digital technologies, which are essential to the creativity and innovation that have allowed this nation to thrive, are pushing the envelope and challenging existing business models. Every day we see new examples of representatives from the content industry and record labels trying to block innovation and eliminate basic consumer rights like recording off the radio. Their attempts to thwart progress and roll back consumer rights through legislation and lawsuits must be stopped, and the real work of balancing intellectual property rights while protecting consumers’ fair use rights must be addressed. Join the discussion. Learn how Digital Freedom, a grassroots campaign, is working to defend the right to innovate."
The CEA Washington Forum is open to CE manufacturers, retailers, think tanks, cable and broadcast industry representatives, government leaders and staff working on technology policy issues, and, oh yes, press. That's a discussion we'll just have to drop in on.
