From:	 David Farber <dave@farber.net>
To:	 ip-sub-1@majordomo.pobox.com
Subject: IP: a letter from Vadasz to Senator Hollings etc
	 after his testimony
Date:	 Thu, 28 Feb 2002 19:07:22 -0500


February 28, 2002


Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee
508 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC  20010

Dear Chairman Hollings and members of the Committee:

         I write to thank you for the opportunity to testify today before 
the committee on the important issues of content protection for digital 
media. After my appearance today, I received a number of questions from 
members of the press about a few key points and I wanted to convey to the 
members of the committee my answers to those questions to be included in 
the record of the hearing, with the Committee's permission. I believe this 
additional information will help the committee understand more fully the IT 
perspective.

         I reiterate that the CPTWG cross-industry working group has 
developed effective technology that is available today that can and will 
protect new digital, secured content from being pirated on the Internet. If 
it is protected "at the source" it will always be protected from the 
illegal activities of Internet pirates. Sony Pictures and AOL-Time/Warner 
have in fact licensed this technology.

         However, there was a point of confusion injected before the 
Committee by Mr. Eisner and Mr. Chernin, specifically: the securing of 
unprotected content from Internet piracy. It is important for the Committee 
to understand that content, once captured in "unprotected" form,  can never 
be put back in the "bottle" and protected against copying on the Internet. 
This is because this unprotected media looks no different to digital 
devices than a home movie that you would send to a relative or friend. 
There is no watermark, chip device, or screening system that will ever 
effectively put an end to this problem. Only the passage of time  as new 
content is released with the required protection technologies   will 
eventually solve Internet piracy. Mr. Perry, who co-chairs the relevant 
working group within the CPTWG, also made this clear.

         Another major point of misunderstanding is our differing 
perspectives on the role of the PC in the hands of the consumer. Mr. 
Eisner's characterization of the phrase "rip, mix, burn" as emblematic of 
our industry's perspective on piracy is utterly false. What the content 
community fails to recognize is that these utilities  the ability to copy 
content, remix and manage it and port it to other storage media for 
personal use in a protected fashion  are features that consumers have come 
to expect. The ability to rip, mix and burn in a protected manner is not 
piracy, it is simply fair use of content as permitted by law.



         As I said, we will continue to work with all interested parties on 
these important issues, as they are vitally important to our industries and 
the nation's economy. Thank you again for the opportunity to present our 
position on these important matters.


Sincerely,


Leslie L. Vadasz
Executive Vice President
Intel Corporation

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