Say Goodbye to Radar Detectors?

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Say Goodbye to Radar Detectors?

3/23/2005

By Terry Calhoun

The parallels to similar cases in the 1980s are striking and I personally hope that the arguments to change the law are rebuked by our justices. Luckily for us IT folks and IT consumers, we do have the substantial might of the technology industry out there opposing the entertainment industry.

Why are the technology companies so involved so early? After all, what's being asked is that network owners police their networks, not necessarily that changes are made to CD and DVD drives, desktops and laptops, and so forth? Basically, it's the 'slippery slope' argument: if the court reverses itself these 20 years later then it can be predicted that any technology that is capable of being used to illegally violate copyright laws must have built in safeguards against that misuse.

Here are two arguments about these legal issues:

1984, Sony v. Universal Studios (industry brief: 'Unlike cameras, typewriters and Xerox machines, whose primary market is derived from non-infringing uses, there would be little, if any, market for VTRs if they could not be used for infringing purposes. Petitioners' unwillingness to devise a technological means of preventing copying of copyrighted works makes plain that without the ability to make unconsented copies of the copyrighted motion pictures owned by respondents and amici, there would be little if any market for VTRs.'

2004, MGM v. Grokster (industry brief: 'Infringing content is the powerful magnet that draws users to respondents' services and fuels their profits.... [T]here is no evidence that these noninfringing uses would attract a single user, much less enough users to create commercially sustainable networks.'

Well, in both cases it takes only a little bit of analysis to realize that the entertainment industry would have a really, really great argument if it were not for the Fair Use Doctrine. I doubt that anyone reading this would have trouble thinking of very significant and productive uses of P2P networks and it is disingenuous for lawyers to argue such things. On the other hand, that's why they get paid the big bucks.

Why should IT folks care? Well, this is another attack on 'fair use' - which is essentially in higher education teaching and learning. Plus, do we really want to have to further police what g'es on over our networks? Do we have the money and time? And, do we want to buy, maintain, and support hardware and software that gets more and more complicated to use and keep functional because it all has built into it elaborate safeguards that essentially block a big chunk of the functionality that the stuff has in the first place? I think not.

In order to be a more informed consumer of the news that'll be coming your way about this in the next few weeks, I highly recommend browsing the informational site set up by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) here - http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/betamax/ and here http://www.eff.org/IP/P2P/MGM_v_Grokster/ . Says Fred von Lohmann of EFF: 'The copyright law principles set out in the Sony Betamax case have served innovators, copyright industries, and the public well for 20 years. We at EFF look forward to the Supreme Court reaffirming the applicability of Betamax in the 21st century.'

If not, then the folks who make and use radar detectors might as well hang it up. Sure it's a different court case and sure it's a different legal precedent, but it still hinges on the technology having some legitimate use and although I can see those legitimate uses for copying digital things, it's just not there for radar detectors. On the other hand, three years of law school and a Juris Doctor have not taught me to expect obviously logical and intuitive, sensible outcomes in legal cases ;-)

About the author: Terry Calhoun is Director of Communications and Publications for the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP). You can contact him through CT's IT Trends forum by clicking here. View more articles by Terry Calhoun.