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List:       dmca-discuss
Subject:    [DMCA_Discuss] Senator Plans P2P Summit
From:       Vladimir Katalov <vkatalov () elcomsoft ! com>
Date:       2004-01-15 9:22:24
Message-ID: 114871044671.20040115122224 () elcomsoft ! com
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January 14, 2004
Senator Plans P2P Summit 
By Roy Mark 

http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3299511

U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman plans to convene a peer-to-peer (P2P) summit
within the next two months in hopes of avoiding a federally mandated
response to online piracy. The Minnesota Republican said the answers
to protecting copyrighted material are more likely to be found through
technological innovation rather than passage of more laws.

After holding several P2P hearings last year, Congress is dealing with
multiple pieces of proposed legislation concerning the distribution,
use and design of P2P networking software. Most of the proposed laws
are intended to stop and/or penalize file sharing of copyrighted
material, particularly music and movies.

Other bills are aimed at protecting minors who use P2P software to
inadvertently download pornographic material, especially child
pornography. The bill would, in effect, limit the availability of P2P
software in the process.

Tom Steward, Coleman's communications director, told
internetnews.com,"solutions are being developed in the private sector
but not all the parties are talking with other. We want to get
everyone in the same room."

Steward said Internet service providers (ISP), hardware and software
executives, P2P companies, entertainment industry leaders, technology
experts, privacy advocates, academics and entrepreneurs will be
invited to the Washington roundtable to discuss the issue.

"In 1998, Congress passed legislation that was intended to protect the
entertainment industry and copyrights," Coleman said last Friday at
the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. "Yet, within less
than five years, the legislation was bypassed by technology. With the
advent of technology such as peer-to-peer networking, law, technology
and ethics are now not in synch. We need to find other ways to solve
the problems rather than issuing lawsuits and lobbying Congress to
pass tougher laws."

Coleman is a leading critic of the Recording Industry Association of
America's (RIAA) legal tactics in suing individual file swappers. In
August, Coleman sent a letter to the RIAA expressing concern the music
industry was in danger of abusing its broad-based subpoena authority
to determine the extent of illegal file sharing in the U.S.

By October, Coleman chaired a hearing on the impact P2P technology has
on the music industry. Coleman said the Digital Millennium Copyright
Act (DMCA) fines are unreasonable and force accused infringers into
settling lawsuits when they might otherwise consider contesting the
allegations.

A federal appeals court in December rejected the RIAA's use of the
controversial subpoenas, but that decision prompted several in
Congress to call for amending the DMCA to restore the RIAA's power to
go after downloaders.

"I believe we need the technology experts, the computer industry, the
peer-to-peer industry, the software industry, the entertainment
industry, the privacy experts and the business experts to come
together and discuss positive and meaningful solutions to this
challenge facing a major segment of our economy," said Coleman.

Coleman added that he was not "interested in assigning blame, or
pointing fingers. I want to bring together the great minds that have a
role to play in this matter and develop constructive measures that can
address these challenges, and determine an appropriate role for
Congress to play in helping to find some common ground."

The senator stressed the answers "are not going to come solely from
government."

_______________________________________________


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