Walt Disney CEO Michael Eisner calls it “the most devastating thing that’s happened to the entertainment business in . . . I think, the last 75 years.”[1]� Mr. Eisner is referring to Internet piracy – the illegal copying of CDs, movies and other digitized content and its distribution over the Internet.
The most recent approach being promoted by Mr. Eisner and others in the entertainment and media industry is the enactment of federal legislation that would require every “digital media device” sold in the U.S. to conform to “open security system standards” that would enable “secure technical means of implementing directions of copyright owners.” The proposed legislation has prompted a fierce debate between proponents of the legislation and opponents such as Leslie L. Vadasz, executive vice president of Intel, who believes with a fervor equal to Mr. Eisner’s that federal legislation mandating the use of such mechanisms “will substantially retard innovation, investment in new technologies, and will reduce the usefulness of our products to consumers.”[2]�
