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WASHINGTON -- Despite the promise of digital rights management (DRM) technology to protect copyright works, software executives on Wednesday told members of the U.S. House of Representatives no silver bullet exists to stop Internet piracy.

Also, the government should not mandate the use of such technology, as some proposed legislation suggests, said the industry executives who testified. The comments were made before a Judiciary subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property, chaired by North Carolina Republican Howard Coble.

In his opening statement, Coble spoke of DRM products as piracy-prevention solutions, pointing to the success of an encryption technology called Contents Scramble System (CSS) that protects DVDs from illegal copying. He also praised the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, passed in 1998 to update existing copyright laws with provisions for digital works. Coble called the DMCA beneficial to consumers, and asked what else Congress should do to ensure that copyright holders are compensated for their work.

"It is my hope today that we can learn how the marketplace and current laws are functioning, and what, if any, additional government action may be necessary," Coble said.

Vendors Skeptical

Assembled before the subcommittee was a panel of executives from companies that produce or use DRM technology. Despite their support for the technology, however, the panelists did not share the chairman's belief that DRM is the key to curbing Internet piracy.

"There will always be leaks in the system...we can't stop piracy," said Will Poole, corporate vice president of Microsoft's new media platforms division. Microsoft, which develops DRM technology used in its Windows Media Rights Manager, believes the industry must promote legitimate alternatives to Internet piracy--such as Web sites that let users download music for a small fee.

Coble asked each of the four panelists whether government should impose DRM or some other protection technology on the industry, and each executive replied it should not.

"Microsoft doesn't believe the government should mandate any single technology," Poole said. Companies and other copyright holders should be free to choose which DRM products best suit their needs, he said.

California Democrat Howard Berman asked the panel why a government-mandated protection technology wouldn't "plug up the holes" that allow illegal sharing of copyright works on the Internet. Piracy often occurs before a copyright work is even released into the marketplace, said Poole. For example, the latest Star Wars movie appeared on the Internet before it opened in theatres.

No technology can prevent unauthorized copying of a movie that "falls off the back of a truck in Hollywood," Poole said. "The software industry is a victim of piracy, too. If there was a silver bullet to stop piracy, we would have used it."

Balancing User Rights

One role that Congress can play is to help define "fair use" rights, said panelist Frank Hausmann, chairman of CenterSpan Communications, which has created a peer-to-peer network for the legitimate distribution of copyright material using DRM technology. Fair use refers to the right given to consumers of intellectual property to use and copy works in a reasonable manner for their own convenience.

How this right is interpreted has been obscured by the DMCA's passage. Some, such as Virginia Democrat Rick Boucher, who is a member of the subcommittee, believe that the DMCA jeopardizes fair use rights. Under the act, Boucher said, consumers attempting to go around copyright protection technology such as DRM in order to exercise their fair use rights would be committing a criminal offense. Boucher has said he will propose legislation that would modify the DMCA to reinstate fair use rights.

"Congress is better off focusing on the definition of fair use," Hausmann said. Then, consumers who want to buy copyright works from a legitimate source will understand the value of what they're buying based on how they can use it, he reasons.

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