For immediate release. April 16, 2002. The American Homeowners Grassroots Alliance today announced its opposition to the "Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act" (CBDTPA). Over time custom and our legal system have developed a fair balance between the rights of copyright holders and the rights of citizens who legally acquire copyrighted works. This balance is referred to as “fair use”. The CBDTPA promises to shift the balance away from consumers by placing more control in the hands of a few large media companies.

The CBDTPA does not protect fair use or consumers. The bill’s exemption for personal use is substantially narrower than the legal rights that consumers have had in the past. Without a clear, positive and broader assertion of personal use, the ability of consumers to use legally acquired media in legitimate noncommercial ways will be restricted.

CBDTA will not work. According to noted computer security expert and Princeton University Professor Edward Felten, "A standard for copy protection is as premature as a standard for teleportation." The copy protection solutions that the content industry has developed frequently prevent consumers from copying legally bought music to their MP3 players but there is little evidence that they have foiled the software experts employed by major commercial piracy operations.

There is no reason to believe that a government mandated technology standard would be any more effective at preventing piracy. If a government mandated protection measure turns out not to work it would still likely do many things: it would inconvenience honest consumers; it would raise the price of media players; it would lengthen product development cycles; it would impede the development of new and better standards.

In 1998 Hollywood told Congress that if it would give them greater copyright protection and they would unleash a tidal wave of legal, downloadable digital movies and music for consumers to enjoy. As a result, Congress passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Four years after the passage of the DMCA, the only outcome has been threats against consumers and media company lawsuits. Now, Hollywood is back with the CBDTPA making similar promises even though there is no reason to believe that the CBDTPA will be any different than the DMCA.

The CBDTPA would undermine innovation because it would give content companies the ability to veto devices like the VCR and the digital Walkman. The CBDTPA would require that any "digital media device" incorporate government mandated copy-protection technology that would allow the legal uses and prevent the illegal ones. That requires content companies to anticipate ahead of time all possible legitimate uses and also gives them effective veto control over all unanticipated uses. If the CBDTPA had been in place soon after the invention of television any attempt to invent a VCR would have been forbidden because the creators of the law would not have anticipated it.

Consumers, consumer organizations, and even many technology companies are opposed to CBDTPA. Over 5,000 emails opposing the bill have been received by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Opposition includes AHGA (www.AmericanHomeowners.org), Digital Consumer (www.digitalconsumer.org <http://www.digitalconsumer.org>), the Electronic Frontier Foundation (www.eff.org <http://www.eff.org>), StopPoliceware.org and others (many of whom have links to help consumers express their views on the issue to legislators). This has raised the ire of The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), which has been arrogant in its blatant effort to undermine the fair use rights of consumers. When Gateway launched an advertising campaign designed to support consumers' rights to enjoy digital music (for a primer on your fair use rights and a clip of the commercial go to

<http://www.gateway.com/home/deals/offers/music/dmz.shtml>), it was characterized as using "misleading scare tactics" by RIA president and CEO Hilary Rosen.

Like many consumer groups and Gateway, AHGA believes:

· You have the right to make copies for your own use of any CD you've purchased legally -- so you can listen to it in different locations and have a backup if something happens to your original copy.

· You have the right to enjoy legally acquired music in any format you want -- like converting CD tracks to MP3 files to take with you on a portable or car MP3 player.

· You have the right to download music from the Internet that you've paid for or that's been made available for download by the artist or record label.

AHGA also believes that the balance in the doctrine of fair use should be maintained. AHGA strongly supports the existing right of musicians and other copyright holders to decide how and where their music is distributed. AHGA believes that artists, songwriters, publishers and record labels should be financially compensated for their work. Under this current law excessive abuses by organizations such as Napster have been addressed effectively through the legal system, and there is no justification for government-mandated technologies that may or may not work, would restrict fair use rights, injure consumers and benefit only a few rich media companies. Rather than restrictions advocated by RIAA, Congress should instead a digital “Consumer Bill of Rights” such as the one advocated by Digital Consumer.

www.AmericanHomeowners.org.
Put it on your “favorites” list today!

AHGA Privacy Policy:  
AHGA does not disclose any information about   it's members or customers to any other party under any circumstances Copyright AHGA 2008.  Please report any problems with this website, such as broken links, to beth@americanhomeowners.org