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Prepared Statement of The Honorable Cliff Stearns H.R. 107, The Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act of 2003
Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection
Good morning. I am pleased to welcome all of you to the Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection Subcommittee's hearing on HR 107, "The Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act of 2003." We are particularly grateful to our guests from the content and technology communities, consumer groups, and academia for allowing us to present a balanced hearing of the issues and challenges facing the copyright field in an era of rapid technological innovation. I can't remember when this Subcommittee last had three panels of such distinguished experts. We are all anticipating an interesting and insightful examination of the issues. In yesterday's analog world, the centuries-old concept of "fair use" established that some previously unauthorized uses of copyrighted works by individuals should be allowed because their value to society outweighs the costs to the copyright holder. This is based on the belief that not all copying should be banned. The Copyright Act, which codified the "fair use" doctrine, specifically allows the use of copyrighted material for "purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research" while it strictly prohibits all unauthorized commercial sales of a copyrighted material. In short, the history of "fair use" has been a history of maintaining the balance between the public interest in free speech with the rights of copyright holders to protect their work. In today's digital world, the explosive growth of digital media, the universal nature of the Internet as a distribution network, and the ease of flawless digital reproduction, have made the time-tested "fair use" doctrine much more nuanced. Daily computer tasks such as browsing, linking, and viewing streaming audio and video have challenged this doctrine in ways that were never imagined. The issues created by just making a "backup" copy of a CD or DVD have made the cases posed by the player piano, photocopying machine, and videocassette recorder seem simple by comparison. Even so, the balance between the consumer's need for free and open information and the rights of the copyright holders continues to be the dynamic, even in a constantly changing digital world. To help address these new complexities and the new and novel threats to copyrighted work, the Congress passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in 1998. In particular, the DMCA created civil and criminal penalties for individuals who "circumvent" encryption or other technological anti-tampering measures known as digital rights management or "DRM." The DMCA also extends these anti-tampering prohibitions to those who seek to sell or trade in technologies designed to break encryption technology or "circumvent" it. Basically, the DMCA makes picking the lock or finding a way through the back door illegal to protect the contents of the house, regardless of whether the intruder has a right to use those contents. The DMCA also contains certain exceptions. In an effort to further refine the DMCA and maintain a fair and balanced approach to copyright protection, Mr. Boucher has introduced HR 107 "The Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act of 2003." Mr. Boucher's bill, HR 107, would establish a "fair use" defense for "circumvention" and allow consumers, in effect, to "unlock" encryption or DRM technology to make "fair use" of the copyrighted work. Supporters of HR 107 point out that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act prevents consumers from making fair use of encrypted materials. As a practical matter this means that a consumer cannot make a copy of a DVD for his or her "fair use." In contrast, those opposed to HR 107 contend that without the prohibition against breaking encryption, the protection for copyrighted works under current law would be weakened. They also hold that allowing persons the ability to "unlock" anti-tampering technology and access the copyrighted material would quickly spur piracy gadgets and technology that would quickly devalues their products and put them out of business. In their words, buying a DVD doesn't mean, "buy one and get as many as you like free." As we have seen in trade hearings in the Subcommittee, piracy of copyrighted material is a massive global problem that threatens a large part of the U.S. economy. Given the urgency of the issue, its effects on U.S. consumers and the economy, as well as the negative impact the abuse of copyright protection can have on consumer choice, it is my hope that we can further examine these important issues to see if a bipartisan consensus can be reached. In conclusion, I support fair and balanced intellectual property laws. I also realize that the rest of the world sometimes doesn't play by our rules. Protecting the consumer by offering choice in the marketplace while vigorously safeguarding intellectual property and encouraging innovation are foremost concerns of the Subcommittee. With that in mind, I believe today's hearing will help us further define the issues and challenges involved as well as explore ways to continue to maintain the careful balance between the public's right of "fair use" and a copyright holder's right to protect their intellectual property. I welcome the witnesses today and look forward to their testimony.
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