[Press Release] NEW TECHNOLOGIES in the INFORMATION AGE: COPYRIGHT OFFICE HOSTS "So that intellectual property law, especially copyright law, can be a little wiser in responding to change, we have convened this symposium," said Rep. Robert W. Kastenmeier (D.-Wis.) in his opening remarks at the Congressional Copyright and Technology Symposium held February 4, 5, and 6 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Noting that Congress faced a tremendous challenge in adapting the copyright law to "the greatest technological changes in history," Rep. Kastenmeier welcomed more than 70 representatives of the Congress, industy, business, law, and education to the Symposium. "We would rather not be reactive; we would rather understand and anticipate change, if that is possible," Rep. Kastenmeier said. He noted that he and Senator Mathias (R.-Md.) had requested that the Copyright Office organize a symposium which would bring together futurists, high-tech representatives, and copyright experts because "technology is already overtaking the complete revision of the copyright law that we accomplished in 1976.” Senator Mathias, in his opening remarks, likened the Congress to Balboa when he first viewed the Pacific Ocean lying before him-full of wonder at a great new resource but knowing that what it meant was a matter of conjecture. Senator Mathias said he believed Congress should leave the Symposium "with a new will to adapt new knowledge to the principle of copyright." Librarian of Congress Daniel Boorstin explained his belief that society was prone to the "displacive fallacy"-a belief that every new technology would displace the old one... that television would displace radio, that electronic news would displace print journalism, that the auto would displace the foot..." But the development of technology is not displacive; it is cumulative," he said, "and that is what gives interest to what we are concerned with today." Register of Copyrights David Ladd expressed his appreciation that the Symposium would provide an atmosphere where issues could be approached descriptively and analytically, not polemically. "Everyone knows how in the last two decades the debate on these issues has been constant and even rancourous; we hope that at this symposium people can get the long view or least a view of where the horizon lies in respect to the effects of technological change," he said. Attending from Congress were Senators Mathias and Jeff Bingaman (D.-New Mexico); and Representatives Kastenmeier, Frederick Boucher (D.-Va.), John Conyers (D.-Mich.), Hamilton Fish (R.-N.Y.), Carlos Moorhead (R.-Cal.), Harold Sawyer (R.-Mich.), Larry Smith (D.-Fla.), and key staffers from the House and Senate Judiciary Committees. Nationally known authors Joseph Lash (who wrote, among other books, "Eleanor and Franklin"), and Frederick Pohl, author of many prize-winning books of science fiction, also attended the Symposium, and spoke of the effect of new technologies on the distribution and marketing of their books. "We may be entering a post-print society," said Martin Greenberger, IBM Professor of Computer and Information Systems at UCLA, who delivered speech on "The Long-Range Future Impact of Computer and Communications Technology on Society." The Symposium also featured hands-on demonstrations of new technologies. During these demonstrations both Senators and Representatives and others could be found cheerfully others could be found cheerfully punching away at home computer systems, gaining experience with the technology of satellite telecommunications systems, and trying out teletext and videotext services." Also on view were optical and audio laser-read disks-their demonstrators predicted that within the decade consumers will throw away their turntables and replace them with laser-beams. One of the more dramatic exhibits featured a large satellite dish receiver set up outside the meeting room to demonstrate that new technology. Other exhibits included a CBS teletext service called EXTRAVISION which will provide viewers with free news and weather up-dated every 15 minutes, software from Visicorp, home entertainment centers from North American Phillips Consumer Electronics, and the PLATO software learning system for elementary and high schools, Publisher John Wiley and Sons, presented a sample of their electronically published work, as did the New England Technology Group and the Sony Corporation. The Library of Congress provided an overview and demonstration of its optical disk project; Joe Price described how the project may solve long-term problems of preservation and access. On the second day of the conference panels discussed several issues relating to the law. Topics were "Information Processing in the Future," "Publishing, Libraries, and Education," "Mass Media Distribution: The Future," and "Administration of Rights in Copyrighted Works in the New Technologies.” Moderators included Joe B. Wyatt, Chancellor of Vanderbilt University, Toni Carbo Bearman, Executive Director of the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science; Harvey Zuckman, Professor of Law and Director of the Communications Law Institute at Catholic University, and Paul Goldstein, Professor of Law at Stanford University. Professor Goldstein also served as Symposium Rappor teur. Panelists included representatives from the judiciary, high-technology industries, libraries, publishing companies, education, the film industry, sports broadcasting, and academia. A tour of the computer-robotics training facility of the IBM company at Boca Raton was the last event of the Symposium. IBM representatives explained to the congressionals delegation how they marketed their computer programs as well as their interpretations of the copyright law and its protection of their products. Other IBM technicians provided demonstrations of robotic arms controlled by computers sensitive enough to detect defects in the materials being carried. CONGRESSIONAL Copyright AND TECHNOLOGY SYMPOSIUM SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS Day 1: February 4, 1984 Opening of the Symposium-Remarks by Rep. Robert W. Kastenmeier, Senator Charles McC. Mathias, Jr., Librarian of Congress Daniel Boorstin, Register of Copyrights David Ladd. Overview-"Electronic Technology for the Policy Maker," Haines Gaffner, President, LINK Resources, Corp. Introductions to Demonstrations-Donald Devine, Chief Executive Officer, Trilog, Inc.; Pat Wilson, North American Consumer Electronics; John Sabio, SATTECH; Bob Quinn, NABU Network; and Gene Leonard, VVR Associates. Educational Technology-Jean Harris, Vice President, Control Data Corporation; and Karen Cohen, President, Continous Learning Corporation. Electronic Publishing-Myer Kutz, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; Albert Crane, Extravision Service, CBS TV; and John Wooley, Editor, View Data Corporation. Optical Disks and Automated Libraries-Joseph Price, Chief, Science & Technology Division, Library of Congress; Steven Gregory, New England Technology Group; and John Hartigan, SONY Corp. Dinner speech-"The Long-Range Future Impact of Computer and Communications Technology on Society," Martin Greenberger, IBM Professor of Computer and Information Systems, UCLA. TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS Mr. GOLDSTEIN. Good morning. My name is Paul Goldstein. I'm Professor of Law at Stanford Law School. I'm very happy to welcome you to this weekend's Congressional Copyright and Technology symposium. I will be serving as the rapporteur for the program, summarizing the lessons that I hope will be exposed here during the next two days. Let me alert you, before we proceed, that in the spirit of the new communications technologies to which this symposium is devoted, all of the mikes are live. All you need to do to speak into them is to pull them toward you. I needn't tell you what to do if you don't wish to have your remarks overheard by others. Now, obviously I will have more time toward the close of the session to put in my two cents' worth. Let me just say now by way of introduction that, like you, I believe that technological advance is central to our nation's welfare. And like all-or at least, I hope, most—of you, I believe that technological advance depends not only on our native ingenuities, but also on the ability of systems of intellectual property to help foster innovation in ways that are both efficient and equitable. This symposium represents in my judgment an extraordinary, and extraordinarily important, step toward obtaining a thoroughly objective, unbiased understanding of the public policy implications of copyright law and the new technologies. Now, we are very fortunate to have with us the leaders from the Senate and the House respectively dealing with copyright matters-Senator Charles Mathias and Representative Robert Kastenmeier. Congressman Kastenmeier, would you like to start us off with a few remarks? Mr. KASTENMEIER. Thank you, Mr. Goldstein. It was a pleasure meeting you just earlier this morning, and meeting many of the others who have come here. I'd like to extend a welcome to Senators and to my fellow House members, and to those otherwise participating here at this symposium. Senator Mathias and I particularly are grateful to the Copyright Office, especially David Ladd, for undertaking the actual implementation of an idea that the Senator and I have thought about for some time, to hold just such a meeting. We were finally able to bring it about. But I am very pleased that we are here away from many people, away from Washington and the pressure of business there or other places, so that we could be here in a beautiful and somewhat detached environment to consider what I think are important questions. The object of helping to shape copyright or other intellectual property laws in response to the greatest technological changes in history is our challenge. We all know that the state of the art-including computers, electronic communications-is such that it's almost impossible for the casual citizen to remain even vaguely conversant with the implications, or master the technology in anything. Our children obviously seem to be more able to adapt to these changes than some of us. We nonetheless have a responsibility to satisfy. And in fact, we have been given opportunities in the past to recognize our responsibility. In 1976, a major revision of our copyright law gave us a taste of trying in some respects to adapt the law to technological change. Even then, with respect to precise language regarding computer software and cable television, for example, we either had to temporize in terms of the law, or recognize that we would not be able to respond until some later time. In the House, we have been holding hearings on "copyright and technological change," so as to enable us to see even contemporary questions of conflict among industries, proprietors and users of copyrighted works in what is obviously an environment of an explosion of litigation and political contest, much of it suggesting or demanding statutory change. We face that environment today. And we faced it last year and the year before. In order to better grasp its implications with respect even to today's challenge, much less to tomorrow's, and so that intellectual properties law, particularly copyright law, can be a little wiser, a little more comprehending, in responding to technological changes, we have urged the convening of this symposium. We hope that both those who tell us what's going on, those who participate, and ultimately all of us, will in a broader sense learn something from these several days here. We then will be able to communicate it to others, most notably for our part to our fellow colleagues in the Senate and House, and we will be able to somewhat more wisely respond to both changes today and changes tomorrow that are indicated with respect to copyright law. We would rather not be reactive. We would rather understand and anticipate, if that were possible. But in any event, we do hope to leave this place a little wiser and a little better informed. And so I congratulate you all for coming, and express appreciation for those of you who contribute positively to the proceedings. And I wish you all luck. Thank you. Mr. GOLDSTEIN. Thank you, Congressman Kastenmeier. Senator Mathias, do you have a few remarks? Mr. MATHIAS. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I just want to join with Bob Kastenmeier in saying a word of welcome to everyone who is here. In his lucid and lawyerlike dissent in the "Betamax" case, Justice Blackmun said: "Like so many other problems created by the interaction of copyright law with a new technology there can be no really satisfactory solution to the problem presented here until Congress acts." In one sentence, Justice Blackmun has defined our purpose and our goal in this meeting. But, as the old spiritual suggests, talking about heaven and getting there are two different things. In a normal period of history new inventions are perfected and come to the market in a more or less orderly way, at a gradual pace and with time for consum ers, entrepreneurs, technicians and, finally, the law to make normal adjustments to accommodate the new technology. But the climate in which we are meeting is different. We are witnesses not to gradual change, but to revolution. Like many revolutions, it not only threatens to overturn the obstacles immediately in its path, but also to topple or overthrow the basic principles of law and order. We are not only learning new ways to communicate, record, transmit, store, retrieve, and manipulate every form of sound, data and information, but in the process we are threatening the ability to maintain the principle of intellectual property-the principle of copyright. I have thought about analogies in history to our situation, and the image of Prince Henry of Portugal came to mind. I thought of Henry the Navigator, standing in his school for sailors at Sagres, on top of the great cliffs that line the shore, looking out to the horizon and wondering what lay beyond. But at least Henry the Navigator knew what he was up against. He knew the sea, its history, its habits, its dangers and something about how to live with it. We are not so well-informed about our problem. Perhaps we are more like Balboa, (notwithstanding Keats' Cortes) "Silent upon a peak in Darien". When Balboa first saw the Pacific Ocean, the great South Sea, he could hardly have known what he was seeing. A great sheet of water lay before him, but what it was, how far it extended, what shores it lapped and what it meant were all matters of conjecture. That is more like our situation. We know that we are on the edge of a great unknown and that is why we are gathered here. I am sure that I speak for every one of the Congressional pupils at this seminar in thanking the Register of Copyrights, the Librarian of Congress and their staffs, the participating industries, the lawyers and judges, the professors, the scholars and the authors who have joined here in an effort to lighten our darkness. I only regret that Alan Latman is not able to be with us. I hope that we shall leave this meeting with a better sense of what it is that we need to do. But my optimism is qualified. Justice Blackmun, with his customary personal courtesy and with the traditional observance of comity between the coordinate branches of govenment, did not include the Congress in his indictment "that the Court has tended to evade the hard issues when they arise in the area of copyright law". Those of us who lived through the prolonged debate over a modest amendment to accommodate the juke box know that the Congress is as guilty as the Court. We should resolve to leave this meeting not only equipped with new information, but with a new will to adapt the new technologies to the tested principles of copyright and to preserve the concept of intellectual property that maybe more important to the future than it has been in the past. Mankind has progressed in its idea of property. Once a shepherd had to keep his flock in sight at all times. Then the recording of title developed and constant physical possession was no longer necessary. We then accorded ideas and creative thoughts the character of property and protected it by copyrights so that it could be released from vaults and archives and be made abundantly available to all who could use it without prejudicing the creative rights of the author. We now suspect that such subjective property, perhaps never even embodied in such a corporeal form as writing, will be more and more important to modern civilization. If this evolution is to take place in an orderly way, without destroying the base of intellectual property and crushing the creative spirit, then we must make the best possible use of the next 48 hours. Thank you very much. [Applause.] Mr. GOLDSTEIN. Senator Mathias, Congressman Kastenmeier, thank you very much for being with us. Thank you also for your fine introductory remarks. We're also fortunate in having with us today the Librarian of Congress, Daniel Boorstin, who has graciously made time available from his schedule to be with us. Dr. Boorstin, do you have some remarks? Mr. BOORSTIN. I might just add a word to what we've heard. First, I would like to thank Congressman Kastenmeier and Senator Mathias for having sparked this meeting. Their interest not only in what we are doing, but in what we ought to be doing and what we might be doing in the future has been very important to us at the Library. I would like to spotlight briefly the special significance of the fact that this meeting is being held under the auspices of the Library of Congress, our national library. Perhaps in no other country in the world would a conference of this kind be held under the auspices of the national library. Our national library expresses an especially American symbiosis-of the world of learning and the world of representative government. The unique comprehensiveness of our national library, which we call a multimedia encyclopedia, alone of all national libraries includes the products of all technologies, photography, phonography, broadcasting, electronics and the others still to be. We at the Library of Congress are committed, jointly with the Congress, to facing the problems and opportunities of technology. Justice Stevens in the majority opinion in the Sony case observed that the phenomenon of copyright itself is a byproduct of the great technological advance, perhaps the greatest technological advance in human history, the development of printing. And it was that technology that gave rise to copyright, as Senator Mathias has observed, and it is the changing technology that poses the problem we want to think about today. The history of technology, perhaps more than any other kind of history, is full of premature obituaries. We are prone, especially in this fastmoving country, to what I would call the displacive fallacy, to believe that every new technology displaces some old technology. That television will displace radio, that electronic news will displace print journalism, that the automobile will displace the human foot, and that television will displace the book. But each of these new technologies has prepared new roles for earlier technologies, and that is our concern here today. The development of technology is not simply displacive, it is cumulative. Every older technology is iridescent, and appears in a new light from every new technology. We are especially fortunate today in having with us people who are so well informed, people on the frontiers of these problems. We want to thank them, we want to thank all of you for this collaborative effort. And we hope that out of this will arise not only an illumination of this problem, but new opportunities and new tasks for the Library of Congress. Thank you. [Applause.] Mr. GOLDSTEIN. Thank you, Dr. Boorstin. David Ladd, the Register of Copyrights, has played a central role in putting together this symposium. David is with us. David, do you have some remarks? Mr. LADD. Thank you, Paul. I take it as my principal assignment to get out of the way as quickly as possible, having attended to the mechanical details, so that we can get into the program after those very interesting and welcoming speeches that you've heard. Congressman Kastenmeier and Senator Mathias have told you about the origins of the idea for a meeting like this. And everyone here in this room is fully aware of how typical and numerous and—within the last two decades at least-how rancorous the debates about copyright policy have become. So we deemed it our purpose here to try to provide a symposium where people can get the long view, or at least as long as we are capable of, in terms of what the horizon is, in terms of technological change, and what problems that change are likely to pose in the adaptation of copyright. To accomplish this, it was our purpose to invite here those from the hardware and software industries, from the copyright industries affected, and those people who could give us the full range, and the full spectrum of opinion on these various issues, and to create a climate in which these issues were approached descriptively and analytically, rather than polemically. And that's why in the letters of invitation that went out, we urged that those people who did participate come prepared to discuss the issues in that mode. And I simply want to remind you of how important that approach will be to the success of our meeting. In the end, you will judge how successful you and we together have been in creating that climate. In the meantime, I simply want to thank all those people who have generously responded to our invitation, those from the industries which are providing equipment here for us to see how it is used, from those of the industries that have interests at stake in the issues we are to discuss. And above all, for those people on our own Copyright Office staff who have worked so hard, and often under difficult circumstances, to put this meeting together. I want to tell you also that this meeting is being videotaped. We do not know, we'll have to discuss later with the staffs and the committees, how those tapes are to be used. But the entire proceedings here will be captured on videotape. Now, let me lead you into the substantive program for this morning. And it's my pleasure to introduce Haynes Gaffner, whom I met for the first time at this meeting. Haynes is founder and president of LINK Resources, Inc. It is a leading computer, communications and technology research group in New York. It serves 300 |