November 2002

The music and movie industries recently sent letters to various universities about the dangers of students using peer-to-peer networks. Of course, the music and movie industries are worried about copyright infringement, but they are recommending increased network surveillance, which has serious implications on student privacy and academic freedom issues.

You can find more information in EPIC's letter addressed to various universities in response to the music/movie industries' letter: http://www.epic.org/privacy/student/p2pletter.html.   [I currently work for EPIC, so please feel free to email me for more information.]

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Intellectual Property
Coble To Sign On To Berman Peer-To-Peer Network Bill
by Drew Clark

July 10, 2002

The chairman of the House Judiciary subcommittee responsible for copyright law has agreed to co-sponsor a controversial bill designed to thwart consumers who use peer-to-peer (P2P) networks to trade digital music files, said aides to the chairman, Rep. Howard Coble, R-N.C.

Initially proposed by Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., ranking member of the Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property, the measure would permit record companies to use "technological self-help measures" against P2P networks.

Examples of such self-help measures could be files that electronically disintegrate when traded over P2P networks, or otherwise redirect those who download them to a Web site where consumers can purchase a copy from a licensed Web site.

The idea behind the legislation is to clarify that content owners retain the right to trade misleadingly-labeled "spoof" files on networks as a wayto detract from the easy available of pirated content on such services, its supporters say.

Under current law embodied in a law covering computer fraud and abuse, they argue, such falsely labeled files might subject content owners to liability.  But technology companies, including Streamcast Networks, which makes the Morpheus software that is widely used on P2P services, argue that such a proposal grants record companies a license to hack the computers of those users participating in P2P networks.

A similar controversy over the computer fraud law -- the key statute barring attempts to access others' computers -- flared when the Bush administration proposed changes in its sweeping anti-terrorism law last October.

Although the changes would give law enforcement officials the means to pursue computer hackers even when they cause less than $5,000 in damage, intellectual property owners and Internet service providers (ISPs) feared that the change could make it easier for lawsuits against them if they implemented technology to protect copyrighted material and disabled Web sites engaged in copyright infringement.

But the parties eventually agreed to a compromise, supported by the Bush administration, which retained the status quo yet left uncertain liability for such self-help measures.

Although drafts of the Berman bill were not available at press time, an aide to Coble said that the measure he had agreed to support did not contain any modifications to the computer fraud act.

In a description of the bill in an op-ed on Cnet, Berman said, "copyright owners could technologically impair the distribution of copyrighted works, but could not actually hack into a P2P user's computer or otherwise remove files therein. If copyright owners abuse the authority provided in the bill, an aggrieved P2P user would have remedies for such abusive behavior." Aides to Berman said that he was preparing to release the bill within the next week. A Coble aide said that a hearing was likely, but said the subcommittee may not hold one if there is widespread support for the bill.

A Berman aide said that a "lobbyist for Morpheus" had falsely spread the scuttlebutt that Berman is trying to avoid a hearing. Streamcast spokeswoman Ellen Stroud said she sent an e-mail alerting reporters that a proposed hearing on the bill had been cancelled and that the subcommittee was considering going directly to markup.