Changes Sought To Dmca

At a Nov. 29 hearing here, officials from the U.S. Copyright Office and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration heard testimony on whether changes in the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) update of the U.S. copyright law are needed.

Executives from the Digital Media Assn. (DiMA) and several of its member Internet music companies, such as Launch Media and MyPlay.com, joined representatives from the National Music Publishers' Assn., the Recording Industry Assn. of America (RIAA), the National Assn. of Recording Merchandisers, and 20 other organizations for the all-day hearing to determine whether the law's sections on fair use and first sale should be modified.

The digital entertainment executives said that if the sections were not changed, innovation and customer satisfaction would suffer. The old-line content providers disagreed, saying the "freebie" mentality of unauthorized copying would escalate if the law was changed.

"It is important that we don't tie the copyright law to a particular technology," said Jonathan Potter, executive director of DiMA. "All the different technologies should be treated the same."

He said the first-sale doctrine, which now allows a consumer who purchases a CD the right to sell it, should extend to the right to sell digital downloads of purchased material.

Online music companies also said that the DMCA's section allowing consumers to copy computer software for archiving or backing up in case a computer crashes should be expanded to allow the hard-drive storage of temporary "ephemeral" copies in streaming music and video digital media. This would effectively deny the current separate "reproduction" right now available to such content providers as music publishers, who oppose the change and call it "shoehorning."

DiMA members, however, complained that they shouldn't have to pay an extra royalty for a temporary archival copy and that such restrictions impede business.

RIAA senior executive VP and general counsel Cary Sherman said the first-sale doctrine "simply limits the distribution right afforded to copyright owners as it relates to particular physical copies. It does not, as many have asserted, establish 'rights' regarding the use of copyrighted works, nor exemptions from any other exclusive rights of copyright owners."

He added, "While we agree that a copy in digital format is entitled to the privileges in Section 109 [of the Copyright Act] like any other physical copy, Section 109 does not and should not permit reproduction or any other activity that would implicate the rights of the copyright owner."

Sherman also said that complaints from new technology companies about restrictive licensing should not be addressed in the hearing, which is part of a follow-up study required by the DMCA.

The agencies will offer a report on their views to Congress by Feb. 28, 2001.