WASHINGTON — I had the pleasure of hearing two Copyright Alliance members speak today at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Global IP Center Summit. At the risk of sounding like a suck-up, I was struck by how these individuals, who represent very different industries, had so much in common when it came to intellectual property rights, and how reasoned they were with different perspectives raised during the panel discussion.

Let me lay out some of the highlights I heard from Business Software Alliance President and CEO Robert Holleyman and Motion Picture Association of America President and CEO Dan Glickman:

* Holleyman noted that software, driven by IP rights, is ubiquitous. “Software is part of the solution to a whole host of social problems,” from health care to green energy.

* Glickman, in his prepared remarks and in response to a question from a Google lobbyist, emphasized the myriad ways studios are seeking to reach consumers with lawful creative works, adding that is true of other copyright industries as well. He said Google was a great company — adding he had used it 13 (!) times already that morning — but the key to successful and legal business models online was copyright owner consent.

* Holleyman echoed that: “Rightsholders should make that decision [making available online].

There was of course some discussion of network neutrality. Glickman and I spoke on that subject at a recent FCC Workshop (here’s my testimony).

Glickman shared highlights of a recent conversation he and others had with FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. Genachowski recently announced the FCC would issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on net neutrality regulation, but in that speech noted that net neutrality shouldn’t be seen as protecting illegal Internet traffic.

According to Glickman, Genachowski reiterated in the meeting his belief in a “clear difference” between lawful and unlawful traffic, and the FCC chairman also said that there are technological solutions out there to address the problem of infringement. Glickman said the Chairman understood that new regulations shouldn’t be “rigid” in a way that stymied the creation and deployment of new technologies.

The threat and impact of online infringement is real for all copyright owners, but it can vary among Glickman’s members, Holleyman’s members, and certainly when those members are looked at in total. But both saw roles for ISPs to play in curtailing illegal traffic.

Holleyman said BSA had been involved in 3.2 million actions against Internet infringement already this year, largely notice-and-takedowns and targeting online auction posts). He then said that ISPs should have contractual obligations with customers regarding appropriate customer behavior, and that technology can be used to help maintain those terms. He then emphasized, rightly, that technology is not the only solution for online infringement, but education and enforcement also play large roles.

Copyright law may not even be the only avenue, Holleyman said, noting state laws regarding theft of service, particularly if applied to “in-the-cloud” computing infringement, could be useful.

The problem of infringement will likely never be truly solved, nor will the roles of government and policy officials, or of technology and its enabling of positive and negative outcomes. But we can make progress as a society when we have reasoned discussions, and that is what I witnessed today.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 30th, 2009 at 2:07 pm by Patrick Ross and is filed under copyright law, education, events, internet, licensing, piracy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.