Crawford on the IICA redraft

Susan Crawford on the redraft version of IICA, as usual she makes many good points and asks the important questions:

Now the Copyright Office has circulated a redraft that, if anything, is likely to get people even more worried than they were about the original S.2560. It doesn't seem like a move towards compromise. If anything, it signals a hardening of position: any technology that makes infringement possible (not just KaZaa or Grokster) can be reached under the draft, and the Sony/Betamax rule is dead.

Sony is dead because the draft says that one possible "overt act" could be distributing a technology "that, when used as intended, automatically causes the user of the technology to infringe copyrighted works without the user making a specific, informed decision, for each copyrighted work at issue, about whether to engage in such infringement." This boils down to: if you build a technology that makes it possible to distribute works publicly (broadband access? mp3 players that connect to the internet? PCs?) you're liable. Even if you don't meet current judicial standards for contributory or vicarious liability.

What's remarkable here is that the content industry feels that Grokster has given it an opening to broaden copyright liability beyond recognition. Why haven't the comments of the many other businesses and advocates that opposed S.2560 been listened to? Why are people stuck negotiating a special-purpose bill that doesn't seem to be special-purpose at all -- but, instead, seems to take on anything that might be used by an infringer? Why is the Copyright Office (clearly not neutral on this subject) holding the pen?

She is typically optimistic, believing that reason will prevail and the Induce Act will ultimately be redrafted so that it is less threatening to technological innovation.

Here is the rest of the post: Taking on Technology.
For insightful commentary on all things cyberlaw, check out the Susan Crawford blog. [I finished up my class with her last semester so I'm not sucking up when I say that :) ]