The Honorable Chairman James Sensenbrenner Jr.
The Honorable Representative John Conyers
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515
January 3, 2006
Dear Chairman Sensenbrenner and Representative Conyers:
We are writing to oppose HR 4569, the Digital Transition Content Security Act.
We share Hollywood’s view that pirating intellectual property is wrong, but we believe the proposed bill will not only do nothing to protect against piracy, it will actually reduce legitimate media sales, unnecessarily harm consumers, and have a chilling effect on innovators of new media technologies.
Today, we make a next generation digital VCR of sorts that would effectively be outlawed if HR 4569 becomes law. This device records to digital form from analog sources of all varieties: TV broadcasts, DVDs, etc. This device is meant to make it easier for consumers to adapt content they have already obtained legitimately for use on portable video devices, including those made by our own company and by others such as the Sony PSP and Apple iPod. Although it is theoretically possible that devices like ours could be used for piracy, the reality is that they present little practical threat since vastly better technologies are already widely used by pirates. These alternate technologies are already outlawed by the DMCA and would be made no more illegal and no less used by the proposed legislation.
Devices like ours, on the other hand, are emerging on the scene to provide consumers with a legal and moral option for getting more use out of content they obtain legitimately, and are thereby providing them with an incentive to purchase content rather than pirate it.
The so-called Analog Hole is used primarily by law-abiding consumers who want to time-shift or place-shift their legally obtained content. It is most definitely not the method of choice for content pirates. Why would anybody steal content by recording an analog signal when they can more easily make illegal but digitally perfect copies by “cracking the encryption” directly on the PC? Put another way, trying to reduce copyright piracy by closing the Analog Hole is like outlawing the sun roof to prevent thieves from stealing car stereos. In either case, such legislation would deprive consumers of choice and enjoyment while doing little to reduce theft.
History has repeatedly shown that everybody wins when laws and technology make media more, not less, accessible to consumers. When compulsory licensing was put in place forcing all record labels to license their music for playback on radio, consumers lives were enriched immeasurably and content providers and consumer electronics companies reaped great profits. The same was true for all involved when the Courts legalized the VCR and later the portable MP3 player.
The Supreme Court has wisely made a distinction between those technologies that are enabling piracy, and those technologies that could enable piracy. Without such a distinction, huge areas of very important and legitimate technical innovation will be threatened in the name of stopping a theoretical threat to intellectual property.
Congress' desire to protect and support the important entertainment industry against pirates is laudable, but consumer rights and the rights of technology holders do not need to be trampled in the process. We believe that preserving the ability for companies like ours to develop the entertainment technologies of tomorrow is as much in the long-term best interests of Hollywood as it is for consumers, the American economy, and our own company.
Although such a strategic view of the future has never been embraced by Big Media, history has shown that if they are once again unsuccessful in holding back the tide of advancing technology, they will once again be the beneficiaries of their own failure.
It is our sincere hope that Congress and our elected officials will look to history and do the right thing for everybody concerned.
Sincerely,
Joe Born
CEO
Neuros Technology International, LLC
650 W. Lake St. #330
Chicago, IL 60661
312-756-0061x10