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 | LAW |  |
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| LAW | |
While property laws (including intellectual property such as copyrights, patents and trademarks) are one of the underpinnings of Western society, they are violated routinely. To serve as a significant deterrent to criminal or civil wrongdoing they need to be clearly stated and provide for punishment. In the prosecution of counterfeiters both domestically and abroad, government law enforcement agencies are greatly aided by advisors from intellectual property groups. Associations like the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) or BSA (Business Software Alliance) can help prosecutors build a case, they can help to conduct a raid so that criminal or civil relief is attainable. Outside the U.S., the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) deserves special mention for its efforts to broaden the domain of intellectual property rights protection. (The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office maintains a website for WIPO at <http://www.uspto.gov/wipo.html>.)
By and large American copyright legislation is considered adequate. Further, its improvement is ongoing and increasingly applied to not-for-profit copying. Also on the consumer-side, the American public, the people of Japan and first-world Western nations are generally sophisticated about illegitimate merchandise, showing some modicum of reluctance to buy it. This is in stark contrast to most other foreign markets, where piracy is commonly accepted and often seems to operate under government sponsorship. While fines for pirating now amount to millions of dollars per year worldwide, jail sentences are rare and the criminals are often tipped off to police raids. Also the quantity of goods passing through international trans-shipment points such as Hong Kong and Miami far exceeds the ability of customs inspectors to be anything more than an aggravation to illegal trade. The "compact" in compact discs increases their concealability; a car trunk can easily hold 1,500 fully-packaged CDs.
False hopes for consumer legislation are a particular danger in the high technology arena. Statements in favor of proposed legislation often use sweeping claims that would make even the most aggressive advertising agency back off. Certainly, consumer electronic equipment should include "lead us not into temptation" measures. Granted, manufacturers should not promote the ability of their devices to make illegal copies, such as some have for their Recordable CD drives or video players with anti-Macrovision AGC circuitry. But attacking commercial piracy with home-use legislation (such as that regarding mandatory copy protection for DVD, see SIDEBAR) would be like running background checks on average gun-buyers in order to stop the international flow of arms. Whether it would have made sense to trust consumers with DAT technology is now a moot point, since this potential industry was stunted in its infancy. Present levels of illegal audio and VHS home-dubbing are commonly considered by title-holders as an "acceptable loss." Also, recordable CD technology is much more involved than pressing a standard CD. Recordable CD/DVDs are unlikely to become quite as affordable-per-unit as the standard, mass-produced CD/DVD.
In preventing real criminals from making a buck, it is ludicrous to ask legislators for laws that implement the technology to deter crime. Copy protection keeps honest people honest but it is practically impotent against commercial piracy. Counterfeiters normally buy high-end or "prosumer" hardware (professional - not home-use, consumer hardware), use DAT routinely, and can afford to hand-manufacture sophisticated custom equipment. In principle, digitized home entertainment could be protected by an international standard but all such legislation would do is increase the sales of studio-quality monitors, speakers, etc.5 And the real bad news is that pirates even obtain clean data from "back-door" sources. It is hard for a post-house to be any more leak-proof than a national security agency.
Though laws are good for defining the rules of society, as proactive measures they are essentially dead letter. Even in America, stealing product (intellectual and otherwise) from deep-pocketed corporations is too often glamorized. In academia, university professors too often bandy about the slogan "Information wants to be free" despite its undermining investment in intellectual property. Unless rights holders maintain a strong public position in favor of intellectual property rights, better laws will not be created and existing laws will continue to be violated beyond the ability of courts to administer restraints. This is a cause for our time.
To return to the boxing analogy: Use the jab. Then use it again. While laws provide the moral and administrative foundation for property rights, it is a mistake to think of them as anything more than a jab. They must be followed by stronger measures in order to have any teeth.
QUICK-TAKE
Movie studios scored an important limited victory with the March 29, 1996, announcement that the MPAA had finalized proposed Anti-Copying Protection (ACP) legislation with the Electronic Industries Association (EIA). If passed into law, this will mandate that players be able to accept ACP signals such as Macrovision and that record/playback devices include ACP circuitry. As applied to the American consumer, this is a very salutary measure. Unfortunately, as expressed by the MPAA's Senior VP for Government Relations and Washington D.C. General Counsel, Fritz Attaway: "It won't stop or slow down commercial piracy." While inaccurate claims previously made as to what ACP legislation would accomplish may now be forgotten, fears of counterfeiting appear to be inhibiting major studio support for DVD's launch. This will not impede playback of illicit DVD titles pirated from laserdisc or analog sources.
written April 1996 -- please send comments to veyr@primenet.com |  |
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