The Copyright Crusade Abstract During the winter and spring of 2001, the author, chief technology officer in Viant's media and entertainment practice, led an extensive inqUiry to assess the potential impact of extant Internet file-sharing capabilities on the business models of copyright owners and holders. During the course of this project he and his associates explored the tensions that exist or may soon exist among peer-to-peer start-ups, "pirates" and "hackers," intellectual property companies, established media channels, and unwitting consumers caught in the middle. This research report gives the context for the battleground that has emerged, and calls upon the players to consider new, productive solutions and business models that support profitable, legal access to intellectual property via digital media. by Andrew C Frank. eTO
[email protected] Viant Media and Entertainment Reinhold Bel/tIer
[email protected] Aaron Markham
[email protected] assisted by Bmre Forest ~ VI ANT 1 Call to Arms Well before the Internet. it was known that PCs connected to two-way public networks posed a problem for copyright holders. The problem first came to light when the Software Publishers Association (now the Software & Information Industry Association), with the backing of Microsoft and others, took on computer Bulletin Board System (BBS) operators in the late 1980s for facilitating trade in copyrighted computer software, making examples of "sysops" (as system operators were then known) by assisting the FBI in orchestrat ing raids on their homes. and taking similar legal action against institutional piracy in high profile U.S. businesses and universities.' At the same time.