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Monday, July 01, 2002

Berman Proposal A Publicity Stunt

For the record, I support copyright protection. What I do not support is prior restraint, treating customers like criminals, or using the acts of a few to mandate wholesale monitoring and control structures for the many. No rational person would ever suggest legalizing unregulated vigilantism on the part of businesses. There are better ways to solve this problem. We've spent 200 years developing the rule of law. Only an idiot would throw it out over this.

A review of Berman's speech shows that his entire economic argument is based on worldwide figures for the piracy of mass produced hard goods --

There is no doubt that piracy causes substantial harm to copyright owners. The evidence is everywhere and the numbers are staggering. In 2001, the U.S. recording industry lost $4.2 billion to hard-goods piracy worldwide, the U.S. movie industry lost $3 billion to videocassette piracy, and the U.S. entertainment software industry lost $1.9 billion due to piracy in just fourteen countries. In 2000, hard- goods piracy cost the U.S. business software industry alone $11.8 billion.

He readily admits there are no reliable figures to gauge the actual economic impact of P2P piracy. He extrapolates his extraordinary claims from a Viant study, The Copyright Crusade, on P2P network piracy. The study indicates that online piracy is a serious issue and worthy of considerable effort. But it in no way suggests, authorizes, endorses, or supports the outrageous claims of Mr. Berman.

InfoWorld quotes Berman as claiming that "billions" of files are pirated each month, yet he has little supporting evidence. The childish statements by his spokeswomen in the same article, and the admission that the bill has little chance of passing noted in a brief review at IEEE-USA are clear indicators of Berman's disingenuous nature.

A review of the CCIA site shows no mention of the Berman fiasco and, given the organization's stand on other Internet-related issues, it seems unlikely they would support such a stupid proposal. Moreover, if Berman really wanted something this asinine put into law he certainly wouldn't announce it in public. He sits on the House Judiciary Committee and the Subcommittee on the Courts, Internet, and Intellectual Property, and could easily broker an amendment to some unrelated bill if that were his real intent.

Berman also claims: "Internet piracy threatens to undermine the symbiosis between the technology and media industries."

My question is just who is this vaunted symbiosis supposed to benefit? This reminds me of Bob Frankston's quote [via Mark Bernstein] on the net industry's fixation on entertainment -- "You'd think the purpose of a roof is to keep rain off the television."

It is unfortunate that a legislator who is directly responsible for Internet regulation has no more regard for the truth than Congressman Berman has shown. For whatever else he may have done, Mr. Berman has shown himself a shallow, feckless shill for the RIAA and Hollywood fatcats, and someone who has little connection to real-world Internet users, their issues, or their concerns. Rather than fanning the flames of his PR effort, we should be reaching out to the constituents of CA28 and letting them know they have a poser in Congress. And that, come election time, Mr. Berman should be sent to the unemployment line. Perhaps it's time to support one of Mr. Berman's opponents. The Unofficial List of Candidates for the November 5 General Election provided by the California Secretary of State lists Berman's opponents as follows:

DAVID R. HERNANDEZ, JR. -- Republican
P.O. BOX 3245
NORTH HOLLYWOOD, CA 91609
BUSINESS: (818) 761-1820
E-MAIL: drhassoc@earthlink.net
Insurance Adjuster

KELLEY L. ROSS -- Libertarian
13403 WEDDINGTON STREET
VAN NUYS, CA 91401
BUSINESS: (818) 788-8647
E-MAIL: kross@friesian.com
College Philosophy Teacher

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