The RIAA and BSA make a deal

The word is out: the music industry and "technology companies" have come to an agreement on anti-piracy legislation. Could it be that the determination of the technology industry to serve the needs of its customers has brought the copyright fights to a reasonable conclusion? We know better than that.

The "technology companies" in this case are made up of the Business Software Alliance (best known for its software licensing raids on companies) and the Computer Systems Policy Project, a lobbying group made up of IBM, Intel, HP, and others. The agreement between these groups and the RIAA says, essentially:

• The groups involved will oppose any governmental mandates requiring digital rights management features in digital devices. The CBDTPA, thus, has lost the support of the RIAA.

• These groups will also oppose any governmental expansion of the rights of users of copyrighted materials. According to the CSPP release, "Both industries stated their support for private and federal enforcement against copyright infringers as well as unilateral technical protection measures and they agreed that legislation should not limit the effectiveness of such measures."

In other words, the RIAA has come to the conclusion that the status quo is good enough, that whatever DRM schemes it has in mind will work, and the best thing to do is to get the government out of the picture before any pesky ideas about fair use, first sale, and other longstanding aspects of copyright law make any more headway. The technology companies, with luck, are freed from having to be the industry's policeman, and are thus happy to sign on. It's a nice, smoke-filled-room deal; nobody felt any real need to consult with the people who actually buy and use copyrighted materials. This, of course, is how copyright law has been made in the U.S. for a long time.

This deal is not entirely bad; it isolates the motion picture industry and makes unpleasant legislation like the CBDTPA more unlikely to pass. But it also makes things harder for DMCA reform and other useful measures. The truly interesting thing with this agreement, though, is that it seems that the RIAA has concluded that it has more to lose than to gain from increased legislative attention to copyright issues. The increasing copyright backlash, perhaps, has given them a bit of a scare. What we should really conclude from this "historic" agreement is that, Supreme Court disappointments notwithstanding, the copyright message is beginning to get through.

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