WITNESSES DEMONSTRATE NEW SERVICES PROVIDED BY CONSUMER ELECTRONICS

Washington, Mar 29, 2006 - "Powered by better electronics, faster chips, and the widespread deployment of broadband, today's digital technology hardware amazes us with its ability to quickly provide consumers with exactly what they want, when they want it, and where they want it," stated Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL), Chairman of the Commerce, Trade & Consumer Protection Subcommittee. "However, all of this technology depends on content - a three-hundred-dollar iPod is only plastic and metal without the music and video content. The challenge is to ensure the legal framework that allows the consumer electronics industry the freedom to create even more innovative distribution devices and methods while maintaining incentives for the contents industries to create material consumers want."

Witnesses representing the content industries and the consumer electronics industry provided testimony and demonstrations of these technologies. Jim Denney, Vice President for Product Development, TiVo Inc., gave his company's views, "As an innovator, TiVo depends upon strong intellectual property rights. Yet, we also depend on the fair use doctrine to bring benefits to consumers and content creators. Fair use insures that innovators, content creators, and consumers reap significant benefits from a copyright system that promotes innovation, that guarantees consumers are able to enjoy content they legitimately acquire, and that provides incentives to content creators."

Stevan Mitchell, Vice President, Intellectual Property Policy, Entertainment Software Association, gave the perspective of one of the content industries. "Our industry continues to drive broadband uptake and adoption of a wide range of technology-based consumer products. Our industry and our member companies pledge to keep making compelling entertainment experiences available, on an ever-increasing number of platforms. And to do so, they continue to rely on certain baseline legal protections, like the anti-circumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. We do not believe changes to this legislation are warranted."

Concluded Stearns, "The Subcommittee has held a number of hearings focused on the issue of fair use and digital rights management technology and we continue to be engaged in these issues. The Subcommittee also remains concerned that both counterfeiting and piracy remain critical problems for both consumer electronics and content industries. This series of hearing is helping us understand the issues involved in maintaining the growth in these technologies that benefit all involved. We will continue to study these issues." The Subcommittee will hold a hearing, not yet scheduled, focusing on audio content and electronics.