COPYRIGHT PROTECTION DOESN'T NEED MORE LAWS—SPEAKERS

Public awareness, not tougher laws or more technology, is what’s needed to protect copyrighted works on Internet, several speakers said Tues. at Business Software Alliance Global Tech Summit. Instead of Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s (DMCA) anticircumvention provisions, or yet-to-be-introduced proposal by Sen. Hollings (D-S.C.) to require govt. standards for digital rights management, there should be massive, effective education effort to get people to take copyright laws seriously, several speakers said.

In audience poll, 30% said online piracy thrived because most people didn’t think stealing software was wrong. It always has been hard to convince public that software has value, said Emma Teodoro, pres. of SoftTech Advantage in Philippines. Just as industry was beginning to make inroads in that perception, along came free software on Internet, she said. Stealing software is easy, and technical efforts to protect intangible property never work because they can be reverse-engineered, nCipher CEO Alex Van Someran said.

Different piracy problems require different solutions, said Geoffrey Yu, asst. dir. gen. in charge of copyright issues at World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). When WIPO asks industry what it should do to track down cyberpirates, industry says it “feels rather helpless,” he said. Laws aren’t enough, Yu said: Long-term solution is for companies to invest in education and public awareness, something that’s not being done enough. Moreover, debate must be returned to original meaning of copyright -- protecting creativity -- rather than focusing on prevention of copying, he said. Increasing public awareness must be done in nuanced way, though, not by Jack Valenti of MPAA screaming about pirates, said Siva Vaidhyanathan, author or Copyright or Copywrongs?

Govt.’s role is to provide legal infrastructure to support intellectual property (IP) enforcement and promote “climate of morality,” said Dept. of Commerce Gen. Counsel Theodore Kassinger. Every Administration over last 20 years has supported building up IP legal infrastructure, but it’s “a very difficult issue,” he said. Poll of George Washington U. students that shows they're willing to pay no more than $40 to download particular software program -- after which they say they'll take chance of obtaining it without paying -- shows “lack of conscience,” Kassinger said. He said Hollings bill hadn’t surfaced for reason: Large segments of information technology community were worried about its effects on consumer side. He said marketplace was better arena to find solutions than another law. In next few days, Commerce will publish notice of upcoming roundtable to discuss issue, Kassinger said.

As usually happens at debates on copyright, DMCA came in for its share of criticism. Law shouldn’t have word “copyright” in its title, Vaidhyanathan said, because it creates regime over and above democratically crafted copyright regime. Copyright law’s “strengths were its weaknesses,” he said, pointing to first sale doctrine, shorter expiration dates for copyrights and other provisions.