July 5, 2004
Volume 5, Issue 4
Stop The PIRATE Act Now
More from Seth Jayson in The Motley Fool
The PIRATE Act, passed by the US Senate under questionable circumstances (no hearing, no debate, no discussion), now moves to the House Judiciary Committee, where it could also quickly be passed unless you take immediate action.
This bill would order the US Attorney General to file tens of thousands of civil lawsuits against file sharers, turning the Justice Department into plaintiff's attorneys for the entertainment industries at taxpayer expense.
Rather than having the DOJ sue consumers for adopting technology faster than the entertainment industries could react, if anything, Congress should urge the RIAA and MPAA to end their boycotts of P2P, license this channel for legitimate distribution of their content, and stop this senseless bludgeoning of our citizens.
Digital prohibition is no answer - P2P business solutions are.
For the House Judiciary Committee not to hold a balanced hearing on this controversial bill would add insult to the injury already threatened to consumers by the Senate's action.
It is extremely important that House Judiciary Chairman Congressman Sensenbrenner and ranking minority member Congressman Conyers hear from you now to stop this misguided and potentially very dangerous legislation.
Their phone numbers are 202-225-5101 & 202-225-5126 and fax numbers are 202-225-3190 & 202-225-0072 respectively.
Report from CEO Marty Lafferty
 The INDUCE Act (Inducement Devolves into Unlawful Child Exploitation), introduced in the Senate last week, has been renamed simply IICA (Inducing Infringement of Copyrights Act) reflecting the failure of distributed computing industry opponents to wrongly and maliciously link child pornography to file-sharing copyright infringement.
Forrester Research says that, with 44 million Americans sharing files, authorized services will be more effective against copyright infringement than IICA.
Forrester projects that music download services will reap $300 million in US revenues this year. The DCIA estimates that this could have been $2.1 billion had the P2P distribution channel also been licensed.
Analysts Josh Bernoff and Christopher Mines suggest that, "Legislation such as IICA will simply force users of Kazaa, Grokster, and others to move to alternative networks, and that even Apple and Microsoft could be targeted" for violations of this over-reaching legislation.
IICA remains primarily a transparent attempt to overturn the Betamax Doctrine that has protected US citizens and encouraged technology advancement for twenty years. It also seeks to interfere with an in-process 9 th Circuit Court appeal that our industry's opponents fear they will once again lose.
In Internet / Network Security, Tony Bradley presents an insightful commentary on the history of this legal controversy, noting that under IICA, "Any person or entity found to aid, abet, induce, counsel or procure a violation of copyright law could be faced with very stiff civil penalties and/or lengthy jail sentences."
He cites Jessica Litman's observation in CNET that under IICA, "Products like ReplayTV, peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, and even the humble VCR" would stand to be outlawed.
This is not such a stretch given the language of this bill. According to John Parres of Click The Vote, "The Ford Motor Company, Delphi Corporation, Starbucks, the Detroit Free Press, as well as Ford advanced infotainment systems manager David McNamara, Delphi regional technology manager Gary Streelman, and reporter Mike Wendland, would all be guilty under IICA for conspiring on SUV's Wi-Fi System That Lets Drivers Leave CDs at Home."
According to Holmes Wilson of Downhill Battle, "IICA promotes lawsuits against companies that make unrestricted music hardware or software, such as the iPod or file-sharing programs. It will restrict technological innovation, limit free speech, and threaten one of the most vibrant sectors of the United States economy. Instead of taking advantage of new opportunities to build new business models, the record industry is pressuring Congress to stop music sharing with more lawsuits and regulation."
This is despite the fact that the record industry is already being compensated for unauthorized music-track sharing through a royalty for each recording device and blank media sold; and in spite of there already being a law on the books covering this: Patent Law Statute 35 U.S.C. s. 271(b).
Inspired in part by the Electronic Frontier Foundation's (EFF) example of how IICA would outlaw digital music players, Click The Vote and Downhill Battle have collaborated to create Save The iPod. Please visit this site.
On balance, IICA is even more appalling than the PIRATE Act and must be stopped before it progresses through the Senate.
Take time to click HERE or HERE or HERE and oppose IICA by alerting your Senator to this mistake-in-the-making. Let's not repeat the error committed with the ill-conceived PIRATE act by letting this bill progress in the US Senate without having an informed debate and a balanced hearing.
Pop Music P2P Promos
Rocker Promotes File Sharing
Veteran rocker Steve Winwood has partnered with "Access Hollywood" to demonstrate the commercial potential of file-sharing software programs such as Kazaa.
"The major record labels are so afraid of file sharing that they're missing the opportunity," said Bruce Forest , a principal in Jun Group, which brokered the marketing alliance.
DCIA Member Sovereign Artists has launched a potentially much more expansive P2P promotion of Heart's exciting new release "Jupiter's Darling." For more information and to find out how you can participate, please contact Paul Angles paul@sovereignartists.com.
Digital Containers Advances DRM
Patent for Tracking Electronic Content
DCIA Member Digital Containers officially announced its second patent for P2P digital rights management technology (DRM) that holds enormous potential to expand the market for licensed content distribution.
Dan Glickman to Lead MPAA
Announcement in The Harvard Crimson
The director of Harvard's Institute of Politics (IOP) has been named the next chair of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), ending a months-long search to replace Jack Valenti as the film industry's chief lobbyist.
The DCIA hopes this change will mark a turning point for the movie industry to embrace P2P file sharing as a legitimate distribution channel.
We'd like to work with Dan Glickman in support of his stated mission to combat copyright infringement. We see many opportunities for optimizing a balance between consumers' willingness to pay and rights holders' willingness to participate in this large and growing marketplace.
The DCIA envisions multiple solutions that will enable users to enjoy an abundance of authorized entertainment with the efficiency and flexibility they have come to expect from open P2P software programs.
We'd like to engage with MPAA members not only to exploit the revenue-generating opportunities currently available from DCIA members, but more importantly to collaborate on more advanced solutions.
We believe the movie industry could more than match its pay-per-view and video-on-demand revenues, through file sharing.
Mr. Glickman, end the major studio boycott of P2P. Urge your members to work with us to counter copyright infringement and commercially develop file sharing to its full potential.
The Power of Impossible Thinking
Transform the Business of Your Life and the Life of Your Business
Impossible thinking. It is what put men on the moon, allowed Starbucks to turn a commodity product into a powerful global business, permitted Roger Bannister to run the four-minute mile, and will transform P2P into entertainment's most successful distribution channel.
While not every "impossible thought" can become a reality, very often the greatest obstacle to transforming our organizations, society and personal lives is our own thinking. This may seem to be a simple idea in theory - that what we see and act upon is more a product of what is inside our heads than out in the world - but it has far-reaching implications for how we approach life and decision making.
In their new book titled, "The Power of Impossible Thinking: Transform the Business of Your Life and the Life of Your Business," Wharton marketing professor Jerry Wind and Colin Crook, former chief technology officer at Citibank, discuss the process - and promise - of "impossible thinking."
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