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Interviews: Ask Gary Shapiro, Consumer Electronics Assoc. Pres.
Posted by Ernest Miller on Thursday, October 24 @ 09:20:17 EDT Consumers
Gary Shapiro is president and CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), the U. S. trade association representing over 1000 companies in the consumer electronics industry and owning and producing the world's largest consumer technology event, the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES).

Mr. Shapiro also chairs the Home Recording Rights Coalition and recently, he famously took on Hollywood in this commentary on C|Net News (The New "Copyspeak"). LawMeme looked askance at Hollywood's response (Interpreting Cary Sherman).

Here is your opportunity to ask Mr. Shapiro a question. As is usual with LawMeme interviews, we'll send 10 of the top-moderated questions to Mr. Shapiro about 24-48 hours after this post, and publish his answers shortly after he gets them back to us.

 
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"User's Login" | Login/Create an Account | 12 comments
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Re: Ask Gary Shapiro, Consumer Electronics Assoc. Pres. (Score: 0)
by Anonymous (Name Withheld on Advice of Counsel) on Thursday, October 24 @ 13:10:41 EDT
Mr. Shapiro: after reading "Widescreen Review" for several years, I've seen your name in print more times than (it seems) I've seen my own. It's a genuine pleasure seeing you and the CEA becoming more vocal in the copyright arena.

About the Tauzin/Dingell bill, you have praised the proposal while indicating that some of it "require[s] further review and discussion." I can only assume that those elements are: equipment design in response to the Broadcast Flag, and the ban on manufacturing TV devices with analog connections after July 1, 2005.

The CEA can't possibly like those aspects, can it?

After heaping praise on the cable-compatibility parts of a bill which is, overall, in such low regard among much of the tech community, your clarification of the the provisions I mentioned would be welcome. Specifically, is the CEA just going to roll over and take it? Is the CEA going to fight at the FCC level? Or, might the CEA take this into court?

It's a pointed question, I know, but a blunt answer might ease some of the "Verizon syndrome" criticism that may attach to this sudden, populist campaign (see last question in that link).

--matt


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Is Home Recording Prevalent Enough? (Score: 1)
by MurphysLaw on Thursday, October 24 @ 14:59:46 EDT
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The big effect of the Broadcast flag is on home recorders -- people who record their favorite shows to watch at a more convenient time. I imagine that if these people woke up one morning and found that they couldn't record anymore because someone flipped the broadcast flag on at midnight the night before, would that raise enough of a din in Washington to get attention, or would they be as ignored then as they are now? Is home recording a big enough consituency for politicians to worry about?


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Free files online (Score: 0)
by Anonymous (Name Withheld on Advice of Counsel) on Friday, October 25 @ 04:49:06 EDT
Most people like free stuff eg. beer, food and music. You name it - if it's free you draw a crowd. The internet is one big copy machine with countless free files and the numerous users online control the data.

So, Gary what do you think will stop the millions of fingertips clicking on copyright material in this mega media player?

Why would the number of files, regardless of copyright status, ever begin to decrease, if the capacity and quantity of storage devices connected to the net is ever increasing?

Why should I care if someone producing a luxury item, such as music, is compensated?

Copyright is like alcohol and drug prohibition - they make legal institutions irrelevant.


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Re: Ask Gary Shapiro, Consumer Electronics Assoc. Pres. (Score: 0)
by Anonymous (Name Withheld on Advice of Counsel) on Friday, October 25 @ 14:27:36 EDT
Do you think the content industries will eventually give up trying to control decentralized peer networks even if they do not become profitable? (For example, they gave up against Video tape, but video ended up being a lucrative channel. I don't see peer networks ever generating that kind of revenue)

I ask this because I firmly believe that robust decentralized networks will eventually be immune to any and all attacks the content industries wage (political/technological/legal). Will they give up? or fight tooth and nail to the end.

Is there any chance the Supreme Court will preserve our Fair Use rights by overturning the anti-circumvention aspects of the DMCA and similar legislation?


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Re: Ask Gary Shapiro, Consumer Electronics Assoc. Pres. (Score: 0)
by Anonymous (Name Withheld on Advice of Counsel) on Friday, October 25 @ 16:07:56 EDT
Mr. Shapiro,

Do you think the RIAA/MPAA will ever be satisfied with something less than a hardware DRM solution like many fear Microsoft's TCPA/Palladium will be and that Senator Hollings' CBDTPA would mandate? If not, what happens? If so, what sort of compromise will they accept and what will persuade them to accept it?

It seems to me that the Electronics Industry shares many interests with consumers of digital content, while the content providers seem to want only to fight their own customers. How could these shared interests be highlighted so as to give consumers an ally? On which issues would the Elec. Industry be willing to stand with consumers?

I know you've been involved in the rollout of HDTV. What barriers remain to this technology become ubiquitous? How do we overcome them?

You probably come into greater contact with our Congressional Reps than most of us. I typically get the feeling that with the possible exception of Rep. Boucher, no one on Capital Hill understands the consumer's rights issues that surround new technologies. (What's your impression?) Are the current organizations that work on these issues (EFF, publicknowledge.org, digitalconsumer.org, etc.) sufficient, or do we need to be doing something else to get the message to our reps? Should we just send more money/volunteer more time to the above orgs, or is there something more that can and should be done?

Thanks for your commentary on Cnet. Keep up the good work.


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Re: Ask Gary Shapiro, Consumer Electronics Assoc. Pres. (Score: 0)
by Anonymous (Name Withheld on Advice of Counsel) on Friday, October 25 @ 16:08:59 EDT
For the last 20 years, copyright law has been working as a one-way ratchet: Congress has been expanding the scope of copyright owners' rights at the expense of the public. What would you say has been the single worst development in the two decades you've been working on these issues? What about the best development?


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Re: Ask Gary Shapiro, Consumer Electronics Assoc. Pres. (Score: 1)
by joeclark (joeclark a-commercial joeclark point org) on Friday, October 25 @ 16:52:23 EDT
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Open-ended question about legal requirements for accessibility (e.g., for deaf or blind users of consumer electronics). The U.S. already has mandatory caption decoders in TVs. What the U.S. does not have are mandatory accessible interfaces for on-screen menus, easy ways to turn audio descriptions on and off, and other accessibility improvements built into devices themselves.

What legal changes do you think are required to improve accessibility, and what changes would CEA support? The two responses may well be different, which will be of particular interest. (I should also ask what changes CEA would oppose.)


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Re: Ask Gary Shapiro, Consumer Electronics Assoc. Pres. (Score: 1)
by seaan (seaanseaan@concentric.net) on Friday, October 25 @ 17:48:57 EDT
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What is your opinion when a consumer electronics manufacturer embeds copy-controls in a device without any notification to the end-customer?

--- My background comments ---

This practice is becoming very common with “ordinary” devices like VCRs and DVDs. I now realize that congress mandated recognition of MacroVision/CopyGuard signals in VCRs (section K of the DMCA), but I only found that out after my JVC VCR refused to record a DVD. The VCR box, manual, and JVC web site had no mention of the copy protection “feature”. If I had known about the copy protection, I would not have bought the product! Instead I only discovered the fact after it was too late to return it. Seems like false advertising to me.

This hiding of information from the consumer was a significant part of my decision of devoting energy and time to copyright reform. I’m hoping the manufacturer’s learned more from the consumer rejection of DAT and DIVX than “they won’t buy it if they KNOW it has copy protection”. I want to make an informed choice on new products, and I don’t like surprises. JVC’s deception (and later actions of not responding to my letters) has cost them a 20 year customer, further I influence over $20K of audio/video purchases per year and now specifically recommend against JVC.

I’m advising people not to buy SACD, DVD-Audio, or DVD-recordable unless they get full information what limitations they have. Luckily, most equipment magazines are becoming a bit more forthright about detailing product limitations. I feel like I was suckered by the DVD – I knew about region encoding, but had no knowledge of the MacroVision or digital video limitations built-in to the format. This was despite reading numerous equipment magazines reviews, which did not mention them (and again the manuals had little or no warnings either).

The situation is only going to get worse, as more and more elaborate DRM schemes come along. The re-programmable unit category is also an interesting puzzle. What happens if I liked the way Replay TV worked when I bought it, but one morning wake-up to find a code update has added restrictive limitations?

Keeping consumers truly informed in this environment is going to be very difficult, but things will be much worse if you don’t keep consumers informed… *cough* JVC go to hell! *cough* In a way, I actually want the industry to keep quiet about all these controls because that will just mean there are more pissed off consumers, who will be raising hell with their congressman when they find out what the MPAA slipped in. I don’t think that path would be very good for CEA members though.


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The Turing Machine angle (Score: 0)
by Anonymous (Name Withheld on Advice of Counsel) on Friday, October 25 @ 18:03:59 EDT
"If it can be seen/heard/read, it can be copied." It seems to me, this isn't just a fashionable cliche. It follows from the fact that computing devices copy, just as fundamentally as they add, negate and move bits. Copying isn't a luxury "feature", like air conditioning. Thus, CBDTPA is no different than a proposal that Pi = 3.2, i.e., legislating the impossible. Do you think this logic is a viable strategy against such absurd demands?


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Re: Ask Gary Shapiro, Consumer Electronics Assoc. Pres. (Score: 1)
by elvix on Saturday, October 26 @ 15:12:25 EDT
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How do you see CE manufacturers balancing their mandate to innovate for a new "active consumer" with the concerns of copyright holders?
It's clear that CE is incorporating digital technologies from the PC. We can see the initial effects of this blending in the PVR (Tivo/Replay) market: active consumers (users), functionality upgrades thru software, end-user hardware tweaking. Very exciting. It is also clear that the Net is uncontrollable but lags in quality of service (misnamed files, bad sound, etc.). Media/CE/Tech companies see the opportunity to create alternate high-qualty channels that can be controlled: i.e., HDTV or Windows Media Player 9 (adds DRM and 5-channel sound -- control and better quality). Both of these situations seem to point to tremendous potential in new products, customers, growth, profits. But restrictive copyright controls are irreconcilable with the new active consumer's need for freedom. Active consumers demand participation in the shaping of their products. They need to play, experiment, and share the same way computer/Internet users do. It's doubtful that the CE manufacturers will easily cede the potential growth and profits inherent in the new burgeoning markets for digital products. But a short-sighted sacrifice of the new active consumer on the altar of copyright will serious hamper, if not kill, many CE manufacturer's chances for a successful future.


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Copyright and Taxation (Score: 1)
by pde (pde, (at) cs, mu, oz, au) on Sunday, October 27 @ 09:31:01 EST
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One way of viewing the problems of digital copyright is that "private copying" -- people reproducing works for their "friends" -- has expanded so far that it may begin to threaten the first-sale market for music, film, and books. Various countries at various times have decided to remunerate publishers and authors for private copying through levy schemes which tax devices and blank media, and allocate the revenue back through copyright collecting societies. In a pre-digital context, this seems to have the simple effect of re-distributing money from consumers to an already-functional publishing industry. However, on the Internet, where Digital Restrictions Management technologies promise to be very expensive, and threaten to fail anyway, the case for the use of taxation (either income taxation, levies, or both) to reward authorship is much stronger. If implemented properly, it would allow unlimited circulation of information goods with just and effective incentives for production [*]. The CEA and similar organisations have, understandably, opposed the imposition of levies on their products as a condition for the legitimisation of private copying. The question I would like to ask, is: "Are there terms under which such taxes could be sound policy? Might the tradeoff between increased prices and unlimited access to digital works ever be in the interest of the consumer electronics industry?" [*] I am in the process of completing a detailed academic defense of this claim. Anyone should feel free to email me (pde, at cs.mu.oz.au) if they'd like a draft.


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