Anti-Copyright Bill Groups Unite to Fight Against the Entertainment Industry

WASHINGTON (Hollywood Reporter) – The entertainment industry’s attempt to get Congress to approve a wide-ranging copyright law when it returns Tuesday for the lame-duck session has become a lot harder with groups opposed to the legislation uniting to win its defeat.

Opponents of the legislation, from consumer electronics makers to fair-use advocates, contend that the bill goes too far, arguing that provisions in the bill will hamstring technological development, turn normal people into copyright criminals and force the federal government to pay Hollywood’s legal bills.

“We’re going to do everything we can to fight this legislation,” Consumer Electronics Assn. president Gary Shapiro said. 

The legislation includes provisions making it a federal crime to camcord a movie and eases the burden on federal prosecutors to go after pirated films and sound recordings released before they go to the retail market. It also lowers the burden of proof for prosecutors, so that they will only have to prove a “reckless disregard” for the law. The legislation also includes language making it easier to prosecute pirated works distributed by electronic means and sets up separate investigative and educational anti-piracy programs in the Justice Department (news – web sites).

The CEA and other groups contend that by lowering the burden of proof for copyright violations, it suddenly makes previously legal behavior illegal.

“It is another step in Hollywood and the recording industry’s campaign to exert yet more control over content,” said Gigi Sohn, president of the nonprofit fair-use advocacy group Public Knowledge. “We should be very careful as we think about extending more power to large media companies at the expense of society.”

Opponents of the bill gained a key ally last week when the American Conservative Union agreed to fight the legislation. The group plans to purchase advertisements in several widely read Washington publications opposing the legislation. The group claims that the bill will advance Hollywood’s interest at taxpayers’ expense because provisions in the legislation would allow the Justice Department to file civil suits against copyright infringers.

“It just plain turns the Justice Department into Hollywood’s private law firm,” ACU deputy director Stacie Rumenap said.

While the bill is generating a considerable amount of attention and has been approved by the House, it’s unclear if it will win approval in the Senate as lawmakers’ attention will be dominated by spending bills and intelligence reform legislation.

Still, proponents and opponents of the legislation aren’t taking any chances. The copyright industries, led by the Motion Picture Assn. of America and the Recording Industry Assn. of America, have been lobbying senators in an effort to win approval of the copyright legislation.

Last week, a score of groups ranging from the MPAA to the American Society of Media Photographers sent a letter to senators asking them to approve the bill, and studio and record company lobbyists have been on Capitol Hill making their case with lawmakers and their staffs.

“We’re still working on it,” MPAA president and CEO Dan Glickman said. “We have a conference call on it almost every day.”

Entertainment industry executives say the legislation is necessary to stem worldwide copyright piracy that is threatening their businesses.

“Illegal camcording, you’ve got to stop that,” Glickman said. “It’s as if someone is coming into a bank and taking money.”

While the new attention being focused on the bill could cause it problems, it could get attached to a spending bill.

“It’ll be the stealth bill that gets tacked on to some must-pass appropriations bill,” Shapiro said.

Another bill that could see action would raise the maximum fine for a broadcast license-holder from $27,500 to $500,000. The fine for a performer would jump from $11,000 to $500,000, and the FCC (news – web sites) regulation that requires an individual to receive a warning first is repealed.

The bill failed in the waning days of the last session because of language attached to it that would tighten media-ownership restrictions. That language has been removed, and it could see action as a stand-alone bill or get attached to a spending bill.

While Sens. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., Jon Ensign, R-Nev., and Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., have introduced the bill as a stand-alone, it is unclear whether there is enough interest in the legislation.

“The leadership hasn’t been showing a lot of interest in it after the election,” one senate aide said. “If it doesn’t come up, it’ll be because of the leadership.”