Now is the time for all good people to come to the aid of the Internet, with the voters of North Carolina’s sixth Congressional district leading the charge.
A bill cosponsored by our own representative, Howard Coble, would give too much power to the entertainment industry at the expense of your privacy and freedom. If passed, the law would allow record companies and others to hack into the personal computers of people who may have obtained music or other data from one of the popular file-sharing services.
The proposed new Section 514 in Title 17 of the U.S. Code is meant to serve the laudable end of protecting copyright holders and safeguarding their property rights. But the remedy under consideration gives Hollywood vigilantes power over private citizens, and that cure would be worse than the disease. According to the bill, companies would not be legally liable for “disabling, interfering with, blocking, diverting, or otherwise impairing” files on private computers.
Fortunately, there is time to fix the bill before it comes up for a vote. And there is reason to believe that Coble, the chairman of the House subcommittee that deals with the Internet and intellectual property matters, might respond to a campaign that demonstrates the problems with the proposed solution he now endorses.
Two years ago, Coble reversed his position on the work-for-hire laws that affect the music industry. At first he voted with the record companies, but a campaign that included celebrities like singers Sheryl Crow and Don Henley helped persuade him that he had gone too far in empowering corporations over artists.
“He thought the language in the original bill was innocuous, but a firestorm erupted, and he held hearings and then reversed himself,” says Ed McDonald, Coble’s chief of staff. “He has shown himself to be flexible.”
It could happen again. The corporate hacking bill may not have rock stars lined up against it, but it is a hot topic on Web logs and other Internet sites. Given the reach and communicative power of the Web, a grassroots political movement against the proposed law has a real chance of success.
A truism of the digital age is that money is a form of information. Given his powerful position on the committee that handles copyright law, Coble gets plenty of this particular sort of information from the entertainment industry. In 1998, he got more money from show business than he got from traditional local concerns such as textiles, tobacco and insurance — combined. This election cycle, Hollywood is second only to lawyers in campaign contributions to Coble.
But Coble is known and respected for his decency and down-home ways. His refusal on principle to participate in the Congressional pension program says a lot about the man who has represented this area since 1984. It would be too simple to label him “Hollywood Howard” and assume he’s in the pocket of the entertainment industry.
Yes, the record companies and their pals have his ear, and so far they are the ones providing him with information on this problem and its possible remedies. It’s time for the rest of us to make ourselves heard, not necessarily with money but with a high volume of constructive criticism.
Ed McDonald admits that his 71-year-old boss is no expert on the Internet. “He wouldn’t even know how to turn on the computer,” says McDonald. But McDonald says that Coble turns that ignorance into a virtue. “He doesn’t bring a bias, although he does lean toward the protection of copyright. He is fair to all sides.”
Great. Most people believe that artists and companies should be paid fairly for their work. But the current bill, authored by California Democrat Howard Berman, takes away individual rights and denies legal recourse to people who might be injured by overzealous corporate hackers. Surely Coble, who casts himself as a champion of the little guy, doesn’t want that to happen.
McDonald says that cosponsoring the bill is an indication of Coble’s support for the general principles involved, including the use of technology to combat high-tech crime. “It doesn’t mean we agree with every section of the bill,” he says. “This was the first step. Now the process starts. There will be changes and modifications, if need be.”
Already Coble’s office has received a trickle of complaints from constituents who feel the bill gives too much power to the entertainment industry. “We have heard from people who say that this gives companies access to their PCs. People resent that and don’t want it,” says McDonald.
What if that trickle turned into a flood, not just from the North Carolina Piedmont but from all around the country? It would be a watershed moment in the Internet’s rise as a force in American democracy. (And the Web is all that democracy has going for it just now in terms of putting the heat under Coble and Berman, who are both running unopposed by major-party candidates this year.)
Doing this campaign right will be a test for the Internet community, which tends to flame first and ask questions later. Anyone who sends e-mail to Coble ([email protected]), Berman ([email protected]) or other members of the committee should be respectful and aim to educate, not harangue. Just explain why the powers granted under this bill are creepy and invasive and unfair to the average person, and request that Congress seek a better way to fix the problem of copyright protection.
There is plenty of time for action. Congress is in recess, and the bill won’t be considered until September. Meanwhile, Howard Coble has shown himself to be willing to listen and learn, and even to revise his opinion in public. The corporate hacking bill needs to be changed, and you have the power to help change it.
Edward Cone, a magazine journalist and Greensboro native, contributes a column to the News & Record each Sunday.
Source: News & Record; Slashdot discussion
