[DMCA-Activists] Consumer Groups Challenge Hollywood, Labels

[Seth Johnson]

> http://news.com.com/2100-1027_3-5630579.html

See: http://www.consumerfed.org/benefitsofpeertopeer.pdf


Consumer groups challenge Hollywood, labels


By John Borland
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

Published: March 22, 2005, 2:18 PM PST


Consumer groups launched a full-scale assault on the
entertainment  industry's file-swapping legal strategy on
Tuesday, with a study arguing  that peer-to-peer networks are
good for consumers.

The near-80 page paper
(http://www.consumerfed.org/benefitsofpeertopeer.pdf) discusses
the benefits to consumers of  online music distribution, how
peer-to-peer technology can be used for  political speech, and
cites record labels' "anticompetitive" activities  in the late
1990s as a way to explain consumer behavior.

Many of these issues have been raised in legal and lobbying
circles  before. But the unambiguous participation of the
traditional consumers'  associations in the file-swapping debates
could give technology  companies powerful allies when the issue
comes back in front of Congress.

"Record companies and movie studios have tried to make this a
debate  about privacy and theft," said Mark Cooper, research
director for the  Consumer Federation of America, which led the
study. "It is not. It is  about progress and freedom of
expression."

The consumer groups are among dozens of organizations and
individuals  that have emerged with file-swapping policy
recommendations as the  Supreme Court mulls the issue.

The nation's top court will hear the case focusing on the
copyright  liability of file-swapping software companies on March
29, with a  decision expected in June.

Record companies, movie studios and songwriters, joined by the
U.S.  government, have argued that software companies that gain
a  "predominant" share of their business as a result of
copyright  infringement should be held legally liable for that
activity.

Peer-to-peer software companies "Grokster and StreamCast are not 
innovators," David Israelite, chief executive officer of the
National  Music Publishers Association, said in a statement
Tuesday, following the  submissions of his group's final brief to
the court. "They have  appropriated technologies developed by
others and put them to unlawful  use in order to make a profit
off infringement."

Grokster and StreamCast, joined by Intel and other technology
companies,  say their software has substantial noninfringing use,
and they should  not therefore be responsible for illegal uses of
their products. Two  lower federal courts have agreed.

Cooper said that the debate over the issue would almost certainly
move  to Congress again, no matter which way the court ruled. The
consumer  groups' action was the first step of a grassroots
campaign to help  mobilize people against the entertainment
companies' lobbying, he said.

"The public must become aroused to balance (the companies')
political  power," Cooper said. "We hope this will be a campaign
that will...help  move the debate out of the geekdom and
lawyerdom where it has been stuck."