The copy-Wright stuff
NBC Universal Chairman/CEO Bob Wright took advantage of the bully pulpit provided on the occasion of his receiving The Media Institute's Freedom of Speech Award to discuss journalistic freedom, content regulation and copyright issues.
On the first topic, he decried the "...flood of subpoenas that government at all levels is serving on journalists, including some of our own." (One of these was Tim Russert, who not only was also on hand, but personally introduced Wright - - Russert was called before a grand jury to discuss the Bob Novak-Valerie Plame case.) "These are courageous men and women, who are simply doing their jobs," said Wright. "If the current legal climate has a chilling effect on newsgathering, the consequences are serious - - and could not come at a worse time."
Moving on to content regulation, Wright said, "We as a society certainly have much less to fear from obscene, indecent, or profane content than we do from an overzealous government willing to limit First Amendment protections and censor creative expression."
He spent most of his time, however, on the copyright issue. He said the biggest challenge to copyright law has already been overcome - - xerography. If copyright law survived that challenge, continuing its application into the digital age should not be a problem.
Not carrying it forth will be a huge problem, however, he said. He said his company and other is prepared to greatly expand its offerings. "But the experience of the recording industry - - decimated by illegal downloads - - teaches an important lesson: If technology isn't managed properly, it has the power to do a lot of damage, by facilitating theft, not commerce." He said industry standards, filtering technology and legislative protections are all required.
Wright tied 1.25 trillion dollars, 12% of GDP, and 11M jobs, to copyrighted material, and said the GDP share could rise to 20% if related businesses are included.
Looking at immediately needed remedies, he said the House Judiciary Committee must act on its package of anti-piracy bills, the Senate Judiciary Committee needs to act on peer-to-peer file sharing prevention, and the Attorney General needs backing for intellectual property enforcement.
Wright concluded, "Let's make sure we vigorously defend our First Amendment freedoms and protect our most important national assets in the digital age."
Are you reading this from a forwarded email?
