With the experts disagreeing about how fair use applies to consumer’s daily lives, how do consumers know when we break the law?

By CAITLIN LUKACS
Observer Staff
Oct. 25, 2007

Don’t understand the details of fair use and copyright laws? The experts can’t help.

With major record labels and movie studios urging Congress to tighten the laws surrounding the distribution of music and videos, the Digital Freedom Campaign is striving to protect consumer rights.

In a panel discussion sponsored by the Campaign and the Center for Social Media, held at American University on Wednesday evening, media rights experts weighed in on the copyright law and media rights issues in the digital age.

Observer photo by Caitlin Lukacs
Panel members discuss copyright law

All of the panelists agreed that fair use is basically an undefined law because of constantly-changing technology. They said the options are to have a well-defined law that is out-of-date or a timely law with blurry guidelines.

The panelists didn’t agree on the issue of copyright law, though.

Fritz Attaway, executive vice president and special policy advisor for the Motion Picture Association of America, said that the “existing copyright law has got it pretty close to right,” but he acknowledged the law needs to allow for fair use of legally obtained media.

“There has to be a balance between the interest of consumers to access anything and do anything they want with it and the ability of copyright owners and content makers to recoup their investments,” he said.

According to Michael Petricone, senior vice president of government affairs for the Consumer Electronics Association, the copyright law needs to be modernized to account for the new digital technologies. Petricone did not give any suggestions for how to update the law, but he said it has to enable free use of content.

“We need to make sure the law goes after the pirates and the bad guys - that’s good - while leaving the true technologists and the legitimate companies alone,” he said.

Samantha Murphy, owner of SMtv Music and an independent singer/songwriter, said it is more important to protect freedom of expression and the forward movement of technology than to be paid for her music.

She is a proponent of fair use and said that she doesn’t see any problem with people making copies of her albums to share with family or friends. Murphy said she would rather have her music be available to everyone than be paid for every single c.d. She even allows consumers to listen to her albums in their entirety on her Web site.

Murphy described this practice as getting to know the music “as you would look at a painting before you buy a painting, as you would be able to try on clothing before you purchased it.”

Murphy compared her philosophy on the fair use of media content to sharing clothing. “If you buy a shirt, you can lend it to a friend,” she said.