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Cyber Crime: First Yahoo! Then eBay. The Net's Vulnerability Threatens e-Commerce -- And You
by Ira Sager, Steve Hamm, Neil Gross, and John Carey
The New York Times, Tuesday, February 22, 2000

Internet Security Summit, Round Two; Online Crime Dominates Talk on the Hill; EBay Opening Washington Office

WASHINGTON -- Amid growing concern over the threat of Internet piracy, a broad coalition of groups representing copyright holders have banded together to create a new, potentially formidable lobbying force.

In a letter this week, 30 groups and associations notified Congress that they have formed the Copyright Assembly "to preserve, protect and defend the sanctity and concept of copyright from all intruders." The group includes major television networks, sports leagues, writing and publishing groups, the software industry, and the movie and music industries.

"We are all excited by the Internet's potential," the group wrote. However, it said, "as legitimate businesses develop on the Internet, it has also become a haven for those who steal copyrighted works, piracy that comes in all sizes, ingenuity and motivations." "At this moment we confront assaults by those who profess to defend technological advancement but who treat copyright with a brazen disdain for laws and rules which guide the daily labors of Americans," the group wrote.

Jack Valenti, president and chief executive of the Motion Picture Association of America and a key player in the Copyright Assembly's formation, said each of the group's members "will have its own unique issues and challenges."

"But on a larger level," he said, "where copyright is under siege, we will join together to fight as one."

The group did not endorse any specific legislation, but it will work to protect everything from software to Internet broadcasts and online music.

Valenti made his first appearance on behalf of the group at a committee hearing on Internet television broadcasts last week. Some traditional broadcasters, worried about their transmissions being pirated on the Internet, are pushing for laws to require Internet providers to set licenses to carry programming. Valenti, however, urged the panel to move slowly on the issue. "What's needed is a watchful waiting to see what's what," he said.

Many of the groups in the new assembly came together in 1998 to push for the passage of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which makes it illegal to crack encryption technologies, the digital wrappers that protect intellectual property on the Internet and in formats like DVD. It also outlaws the manufacture and sale of devices used to crack those defenses.

Passage of that bill took nearly four years. A key issue in the battle was whether the legislation went too far beyond the traditional fair-use doctrine of copyright law. Under earlier laws, it was not a crime to access or make a copy of a protected work, but it was illegal to misuse the information or to copy and redistribute it. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act changed that, making it illegal merely to access copyrighted material by circumventing copy-protection measures.

In addition to the WAA, the Copyright Assembly's membership includes the American Association of Advertising Executives, NASCAR, the Screen Actors Guild, the National Association of Broadcasters, the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the Recording Industry Association of America and the Newspaper Association of America.

Internet Security Summit, Round Two

Nearly 200 business leaders are expected at the United States Chamber of Commerce offices in Washington on Tuesday for another meeting with administration officials to discuss ways to protect the nation's important networks.

The Partnership for Critical Infrastructure Security's meeting comes one week after President Clinton summoned high-tech business leaders to the White House to discuss recent attacks on leading Internet sites.

Plans to create the partnership were announced by Commerce Secretary William Daley late last year, but officials said interest in the issue skyrocketed after the attacks.

Chamber officials say the meeting will focus on protecting computer networks and other critical systems from terrorism and vandalism.

Online Crime Dominates Talk on the Hill

This month's attacks on leading Internet sites have prompted a flurry of legislative proposals for cracking down on online crime.

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson, a Texas Republican, said she plans to introduce legislation that would double the criminal penalties for computer hackers. Senator Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, has promised a bill that would both lower the threshold for indicting hackers and give law enforcement agencies bigger budgets for the investigation of computer crimes.

Meanwhile, Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, said he plans to introduce legislation that would change federal laws to make it easier to investigate and prosecute Internet criinals. Those ideas were floated last week after Attorney General Janet Reno told Congress the Justice Department is drailing its own recommendations for updating laws to deal with new technological crimes. And if those proposals are not enough, a group of Republican lawmakers has formed a "Cyber-Security Team." The 16-member panel will be headed by House Republican Conference Chairman J.C. Watts of Oklahoma. Watts said the paners first priority will be to increase awareness about the need for people to protect themselves online.

EBay Opening Washington Office

Tod Cohen, who has led the Motion Picture Association of America's successful lobbying on Internet issues for the past 18 months, is leaving at the end of February to open a Washington office for eBay, the online auction giant.

Cohen was a key player in the passage last year of a bill to crack down on the unauthorized use of trademarks, famous names and terms in Internet domain names, a practice known as cybersquatting.

With eBay, Cohen's initial focus will be to push legislation to extend copyright protection to online databases. That will be no small task. EBay is at odds with most Internet companies on just how far such laws should go.


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