Hollywood versus Silicon Valley: The two titan industries are locked in a struggle over copyright issues and the Internet. The battle has pulled in Washington lawmakers and regulators.

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At the witness table moments later, Eisner repeated that boast, hoping to hammer home Hollywood's message: Congress must act fast to protect the motion picture industry from Internet pirates like Benjamin. And the Disney chief also pointed a finger at big names in the technology industry -- Intel, Microsoft, Apple Computer, Dell Computer, and Hewlett-Packard -- accusing the tech giants of condoning a growing wave of digital thievery.

Seated next to Eisner was Peter Chernin, chief operating officer of News Corp., which owns the Fox network; Chernin chimed in against the tech companies. Intel and other industry giants, many of which are in Silicon Valley, are to blame, Chernin said, for stalling the effort to help protect television programs against illegal copying. But he also described an even bigger high-tech roadblock. Consumers will never switch to high-definition digital television unless high-quality content is available on the airwaves, he said, and no one will offer high-quality programs without technology to enforce copyright protections.

Then Silicon Valley had its turn. Representing this side was Les Vadasz, executive vice president at Intel, who urged the senators to keep a level head about the entertainment industry's complaints. The technology industry, Vadasz said, is 20 times the size of Hollywood, fast moving, and highly innovative. "Please don't tamper with the dynamics of the technology industry," he warned. "It would do irreparable damage." Vadasz differed with a draft legislative proposal by Sen. Ernest F. Hollings, D-S.C., chairman of the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee; the Hollings draft, which was circulating around Capitol Hill, would give tech firms just one year to develop anti-copying "policeware." If they didn't act, the tech companies could ultimately be subject to criminal penalties.

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Hollywood versus Silicon Valley. Over the past year, the two mega-industries have been locked in a highly public fight in Washington, unable to agree on how to keep the Internet from becoming a pirates' haven. The stakes are high, because the outcome of the battle will help define the computers, televisions, digital videodisc players, and yet-unimagined electronic devices of the 21st century.

These two giants have clashed before. In the late 1970s, the movie studios feared that the newly developed videocassette recorder would slash theater revenues. Hollywood filed copyright-infringement lawsuits against VCR manufacturers. In a 1982 congressional hearing, Jack Valenti, the head of the Motion Picture Association of America, compared the VCR to the Boston Strangler. Hollywood lost that fight in 1984 when the U.S. Supreme Court decided in Sony Corp. v. Universal City Studios that consumers have a right to tape television broadcasts for watching at another time or on another machine.

The legal principle is that a consumer can make "fair use" of copyrighted material. But copyright expert Peter Jaszi, a law professor at American University, also points out that "a very important part of the Sony analysis is that new information technology that benefits consumers is a presumptively good thing."

Slashdot | Your Rights Online - A History of the Digital Copyright Struggle.

sconeu writes "The National Journal has an article detailing the battle between Hollywood and Silicon Valley. An interesting read, it discusses the tech industry's early miscues, and the efforts made to ensure that Hollywood isn't the only voice heard on the Hill."