Industry Insider

I. Copyright Reform

Advocates call for legal protections for copyright consumers
Authored by Grant Gross on May 16, 2013 – PC World

The U.S. Congress should consider a "safe harbor" from legal action for consumers using works protected by copyright as it launches a long-term effort to revamp copyright law, some advocates said Thursday.

Consumers should be protected from lawsuits when they use digital works they've legally purchased, Jule Sigall, assistant general counsel for copyright at Microsoft, told U.S. lawmakers.

"The lack of clarity around reasonable and ordinary personal use has contributed to the declining public reputation of copyright and a lack of respect for the law among some consumers," he told the intellectual property subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee. "Too often consumers view copyright as an impediment to their enjoyment of creative content they have paid for and a deterrent to innovation in new products and services."

Copyright holders sometimes used ambiguities in copyright law to threaten consumers, he added.

Just as Congress carved out a safe harbor for websites and other online businesses in the 15-year-old Digital Millennium Copyright Act, it should consider legal protections to provide "certainty that the ordinary and reasonable personal use of legitimately purchased content will be enabled, not stifled, by copyright," Sigall said. "I'm not talking about piracy here, but situations in which consumers who have legitimately purchased content are confronted and confused by assertions that actions enabling the enjoyment of that content are somehow infringing."

A safe harbor for consumers should be a top priority for Congress, added Pam Samuelson, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley Law School. She also called on lawmakers to look for new ways that creators can easily register their works.

II. State of Video

McCain to push for 'a la carte' cable bill
Authored by Brendan Sasso and Jennifer Martinez on May 13, 2013 – The Hill

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is scheduled to push for his "a la carte" cable TV bill at a Senate hearing on Tuesday.

His bill, the Television Consumer Freedom Act, would pressure cable and satellite TV providers to allow their customers to pick and choose which individual channels they pay for. He argues the legislation, which is opposed by the cable industry, would drive down prices.

The hearing of the Senate Commerce Committee's subcommittee on Technology and the Internet is intended to be an overview of federal video policy. It will focus on changes in the marketplace, satellite television reauthorization legislation, retransmission consent issues, the upcoming auction of broadcast spectrum licenses to cellphone carriers and consumer issues, according to a committee aide.

The other witnesses will be Michael Powell, the head of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA); former Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.), the CEO of the National Association of Broadcasters; Dish Network General Counsel R. Stanton Dodge; and Public Knowledge attorney John Bergmayer. 

III. Open Internet

AT&T CEO's comments prompt net-neutrality fears
Authored by Brendan Sasso and Jennifer Martinez on May 15, 2013 – The Hill

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson stoked fear among open Internet advocates on Wednesday when he told investors that he expects content owners to soon begin paying to subsidize smartphone traffic to their websites and services.

"There will be players in the ecosystem who are motivated to draw more traffic to their particular content or website. Will there be models emerge where they are willing to defray some of the consumer's in-user charges by paying it themselves, either by advertising or by monetization of data?" he asked during a conference hosted by J.P. Morgan Chase. "I think the answer to that is yes."

He said the content and application developers, not AT&T, will drive the change in the marketplace.

The comments came just days after The Wall Street Journal reported that ESPN has had talks with at least one major wireless carrier to pay to exempt its content from monthly data caps.

IV. DMCA: Anti-circumvention

The Real Reason We Should Cheer the Cellphone “Unlocking” Law
Authored by Adam Sorensen on May 13, 2013 - TIME

On its face, a bipartisan bill introduced in the House of Representatives last Thursday to permanently legalize cellphone “unlocking” isn’t particularly groundbreaking. There seems to be consensus in Washington that consumers should be allowed to take their mobile devices to a different carrier—say, use your AT&T iPhone on the Verizon network after the initial service contract has expired. The practice was legal from 2006 through January of this year, thanks to an exemption from the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. And after the Library of Congress allowed  that exemption to lapse in January, President Obama and numerous lawmakers called for a quick fix.

But the episode is symptomatic of a much larger problem with the nation’s digital copyright laws. And Thursday’s House bill, unlike its predecessors in the Senate, is the first to seriously address it.

Fifteen years ago, Congress passed the DMCA in response to dramatic changes in the copyright landscape caused by the Internet and to implement two treaties from the UN’s intellectual property organization. In its most significant section, the DMCA outlawed users from bypassing access controls on software or hardware (like the mechanisms that limit a cellphone to one carrier), and the trafficking of tools to get around access or copy controls. Lawmakers included exemptions for backing up information and for some types of encryption research and repair, and put in place a system by which new exemptions could be approved (or revoked) by the Library of Congress every three years.